Modern German Grammar: A Practical Guide, Second Edition

Zur Befriedigung ihres Heißhungers wollte sie unbedingt den ganzen Kuchen essen. To satisfy her ravenous hunger she was determin ...

(c) Official grades at school are usually scaled as follows (from best to worst): In Mathematik hat er ‘befriedigend’ bekommen. ...

To get enough: Mit dem spärlichen Essen kann man nicht satt werden. This meagre meal isn’t enough (to fill you up).
 See also ...

Note here that passieren, geschehen and zu*stoßen have a connotation of something bad happening.
 See also 76.1g (p. 254). Wen ...

113.2 Wishes The most common way to express wishes involves wünschen ‘to wish’ and its derivatives. (a) Wishing for things sich ...

(a) These expressions can be modified by the use of adverbs/adjectives such as: furchtbar ‘frightfully’ schrecklich ‘terribly’ s ...

Wäre eine Verlängerung nicht besser gewesen? Would an extension not have been better? eigentlich can emphasize that something ha ...

114 Expressing surprise 114.1 Surprise in general überraschen ‘to surprise’ jmdn. überraschen ‘to surprise sb.’ bei etw. überras ...

114.2 Unforeseen events To indicate that something was not foreseeable, one of the following expressions is used. These expressi ...

Es ist nicht zu fassen, wie schrecklich abgemagert die Flüchtlinge sind. It is unbelievable how terribly emaciated the refugees ...

114.7 Irony In order to be ironic about a real mess caused by some sort of disaster, schöne Bescherung (lit: ‘giving of Christma ...

Wir wollen uns einen vergnüglichen Abend auf der Alpenhütte machen. We want to have a fun evening at the alpine cabin. Sie hatte ...

115.6 Doing things for fun/pleasure is rendered by (so) zumVergnügen/zum Spaß: Ich möchte nur einmal so zum Vergnügen/zum Spaß m ...

115.9 Joking (einen) Spaß machen ‘to joke’ einen Witz machen/erzählen ‘to make/tell a joke’ einen guten Witz machen/reißen ‘to m ...

XV Communication strategies 116 Using fillers 116.1 Fillers are words or sounds which can be inserted in pauses while the speake ...

This could be followed by Moment noch or Augenblick noch ‘just a moment’, to signal that the speaker is asking for a little time ...

117 Keeping the channel open 117.1 Even when someone carries a conversation for a fairly long time, he or she does not speak in ...

allerdings introduces a point which re-asserts the validity of an earlier point despite some argument to the contrary. It can th ...

or it can express exasperation: Das gibt es doch nicht! I don’t believe it!/You must be joking! and in questions it can express ...

Mein Deutsch war immer schwach. Ich war immerhin der Beste in der Klasse. My German was always weak. I was the best in the class ...