Position of the adverb “auch”

Question

In the following sentence, where is the right position for the adverb auch? Is it possible to place it at the end of the sentence like in English?

Sie behauptet, dass sie keinen Alkohol mehr trinkt und mit dem Rauchen bald auch aufhören wird.

As changing the position of auch may change the meaning of the sentence: Can you elaborate what you want to convey? — Wrzlprmft, Oct 15, 2015 at 12:06
she ceases alcohol and smoking, i would like to build two sentences using dass and und, but i can not determine where to put adverbs — Dragut, Oct 15, 2015 at 12:15
Apart: Subjunctive or "dass"-clause. That is, either "Sie behauptet, sie trinke keinen Alkohol mehr" or "Sie behauptet, dass sie keinen Alkohol mehr trinkt" — Fixed this as it's not part of the question. — Em1, Oct 15, 2015 at 12:20
And more idiomatic: "... und mit dem Rauchen auch bald aufhören wird." - Fixing this, too. — Em1, Oct 15, 2015 at 12:21

Ralph M. Rickenbach · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-15 12:55:08Z

2

I see three positions for the auch in this sentence, and they all change the meaning slightly.

...und auch mit dem Rauchen bald aufhören wird.

puts the emphasis on smoking/mit dem Rauchen.

...und mit dem Rauchen auch bald aufhören wird.

puts the emphasis on soon/bald.

...und mit dem Rauchen bald auch aufhören wird.

puts the emphasis on stop/aufhören.

At the end of the sentence does not work in German.

answered Oct 15, 2015 at 12:55

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So we put "auch" in front of a word which we want to emphase, yes?
– user1474062
Oct 15, 2015 at 13:18
I don't think that you can put emphasis on "bald" in this sentence, as it doesn't make sense to modify "bald" with "auch". If the sentence were "Sie hört bald mit dem Trinken auf, und auch bald mit dem Rauchen", that's fine. But in the sentence above, it's weird to apply "auch" to "bald". In fact, I don't see a big difference between 1 and 2 ("auch" before/after "mit dem Rauchen"). The slight difference is that in the former case the adverb modifies the whole sentence "mit dem Rauchen aufhören", and the latter case it only modifies the verb. The third sentence is still a bit off, to my mind.
– Em1
Oct 15, 2015 at 13:42
I think all three are valid, the first being the most common. Concerning the emphasis: I think this may vary... (from person to person, from hour to hour...) (BTW: the emphasize wizard stuff hinders my from upvoting)
– Wolf
Oct 15, 2015 at 14:04

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