When you tell a story, you don't just state facts—you share how you feel about what happened. Was it a lucky break, a stupid mistake, or a surprise?
In German, you can express your attitude toward an event by turning an adjective into an adverb. You do this by adding the suffix -weise (usually as -erweise) to the base adjective. This works just like adding "-ly" or "-ly enough" in English (for example, fortunately, stupidly).
Because these adverbs describe your judgment of the whole situation, they are frequently placed at the very beginning of the sentence to set the mood right away. Remember your sentence structure rules: if you start a sentence with an adverb, the conjugated verb must take the second position immediately afterward.
| Normally I do not lose anything, but stupidly I forgot my key yesterday. | Normalerweise verliere ich nichts, aber dummerweise habe ich gestern meinen Schlüssel vergessen. |
| Fortunately, my colleague found it and astonishingly brought it along immediately. | Glücklicherweise hat mein Kollege ihn gefunden und erstaunlicherweise sofort mitgebracht. |
| Understandably, I was very grateful to him. | Verständlicherweise war ich ihm sehr dankbar. |
Adding Twists to Your Stories
These adverbs are perfect storytelling tools. You can use them to effortlessly guide your listener through the coincidences, strange moments, and surprises of a personal anecdote.
| Coincidentally, I met my boss today in the park. | Zufälligerweise habe ich heute im Park meinen Chef getroffen. |
| Strangely, he gave me a gift, and funnily enough it was the same book. | Seltsamerweise hat er mir ein Geschenk gegeben, und lustigerweise war es dasselbe Buch. |
| Surprisingly, he also invited me to the cinema. | Überraschenderweise hat er mich auch ins Kino eingeladen. |
Finally, they are also handy for expressing uncertainty or speculation about how a situation might unfold in the future.
| Possibly I will get a better position next week. | Möglicherweise bekomme ich nächste Woche eine bessere Position. |
