“so/such that …” construction auf Deutsch

Question

How can I indicate that the manner, nature or degree of something influences another thing? Examples:

("so that")

It is so big that I cannot fit it in my mouth.

("such that")

He makes cookies such that one wonders what is in them.

He makes such cookies that one wonders what is in them.

We can also use this construction to say that the manner of an action caused something:

He is laughing so hard that milk is coming out his nose.

To clarify the second and third, let me emphasize that it is not necessarily his intention to make such cookies; he makes cookies, and the nature of those cookies causes people to wonder what is in those cookies. In other words, the meaning of the second would be very much altered if "so" were substituted for "such". And the third would sound like nonsense with "so" substituted for "such".

Answer 1

It is one of those:

... so ..., dass ...
..., sodass ...
... solch(e(r/s)) ..., dass ...

Note, that »dass« is a subordinate conjunction, which means, that you have to put a comma before dass, and that the sentence that starts with dass must have its finite verb at the end (not at position 2!)

Maybe you see best, when I give you the German translations of your examples:

Er/sie/es ist so groß, dass er/sie/es nicht in meinen Mund passt.
literal: It is so big that it doesn't fit in my mouth.

Or:

Er/sie/es ist so groß, dass ich ihn/sie/es nicht in meinen Mund bekomme.
literal: It is so big that I can't get it into my mouth.

(The gender of the pronoun depends in the noun from the context to which it refers: der Apfel = er; die Gurke = sie, das Brot = es)

He makes cookies such that one wonders what is in them.
Er macht Kekse, sodass man sich fragt, was drinnen ist.

He makes such cookies that one wonders what is in them.
Er macht solche Kekse, dass man sich fragt, was drinnen ist.

English »such that« (with nothing between both words) becomes »so dass«, but you can (and should) merge it to ne word: »sodass«.

• such that = so dass, sodass
• such + [noun] = a form of solch + noun; see: https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/solch

And finally:

He is laughing so hard that milk is coming out his nose.
Er lacht so heftig, dass Milch aus seiner Nase kommt.

This again is like in the first example.

Like in English, »so, dass« does not mean, that there is an intention. It just describes a reason and its result.