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Ich bin kein Mensch, der sofort mit jemanden aufhören kann zu lieben.

or

Ich bin kein Mensch, der sofort mit jemanden zu lieben aufhören kann.

and my requested meaning in English is "I am not a human than can stop loving someone instantly".

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3 Answers 3

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I think this would be better

Ich bin kein Mensch, der einfach aufhören kann, jemanden zu lieben.

Of your two options this one is the closest to correct

Ich bin kein Mensch, der sofort mit jemanden zu lieben aufhören kann.

Problems arise post-comma, however.

mit jemanden

mit is a dative preposition so one must say

mit jemandem

In reality, we don't really need that mit there because lieben is transitive, which means it must take a direct object. Since it's the direct object of lieben, jemand- becomes jemanden in the accusative.

So now our sentence is

Ich bin kein Mensch, der sofort jemanden zu lieben aufhören kann.

Der is a relative pronoun which introduces our appositive, the phrase that describes the antecedent (Mensch) further. But we have things in our appositive that do not describe Mensch but rather tell what ich, the subject does. Those things namely are...

jemanden zu lieben

I love someone but that however does not shed any light onto what that Mensch is doing. So it has no place in our appositive (it goes outside the commas behind the appositive). Hence our sentence is now...

Ich bin kein Mensch, der sofort aufhören kann, jemanden zu lieben.

Our work is almost finished! It was previously mentioned earlier that einfach works better in this sentence than sofort stylistically and connotation-wise. So our final product is...

Ich bin kein Mensch, der einfach aufhören kann, jemanden zu lieben.

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    To fit in the "mit" it would also be possible to say "Ich bin kein Mensch, der sofort damit aufhören kann, jemanden zu lieben" but your translation is better.
    – Emanuel
    Dec 26, 2013 at 23:32
  • This might be better, but it is dodging the question. There is always a better rewording, but if the question is about A vs. B, then A vs. B is what we should try to address. Then we can go ahead and suggest C, though again, it should be made clear why C is better than either A or B. Otherwise it's hard to learn anything from it. It's giving a man a fish rather than teaching him fishing.
    – RegDwight
    Dec 28, 2013 at 13:05
  • I see what you mean! I added a bit more explanation.
    – thekeyofgb
    Dec 28, 2013 at 13:36
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The mit is inappropriate – strictly, you are suggesting that you’re not a person who can stop loving with somebody.

Ich bin kein Mensch, der sofort aufhören kann, jemanden zu lieben.

This is one step better, but it’s still awkward. »Ich bin kein Mensch« is a slightly clumsy formulation – correct, but you’d never hear a native speaker use it.

Ich kann nicht einfach aufhören, jemanden zu lieben.

Finally, something better. The best, though, would be to say

Ich kann nicht einfach aufhören zu lieben.

Every language has a logic, and German has a lot of it. A language, to get all Sapir–Whorf, conditions how you think by conditioning how you can express the same idea. Thus, while the second translation is ok, I think the last one gets it across much better (unless you want to put very specific weight on someone, in which case, however, you might feel you want to define that term).

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I would choose the first sentence which is

Ich bin kein Mensch, der sofort mit jemandem aufhören kann zu lieben.

because the verb aufhören is one of the "zu construction verbs" that means the preposition zu is needed. And instead of jemanden, it's jemandem because mit takes the dative case.

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    However, the mit does not belong there at all.
    – Carsten S
    Dec 26, 2013 at 19:11
  • Oops, you're right i oversaw that one :)
    – DerPolyglott33
    Dec 26, 2013 at 21:44
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    So the best to write this sentence is: "Ich bin kein Mensch, der einfach damit aufhören kann, jemanden zu lieben" isn't it?
    – Khaled
    Dec 26, 2013 at 22:56
  • No ' damit' because you already elaborated your sentence. Wait for another native speaker and see what he thinks about it.
    – DerPolyglott33
    Dec 26, 2013 at 23:01
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    Just to make it clear. The sentence as given here in the answer is incorrect. Your explanations are correct (mit + dative) and this sentence appears grammatically OK but "mit jemandem aufhören zu lieben" is not proper German.
    – Em1
    Dec 27, 2013 at 23:37

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