Breakdown of Wir warten schon fünfzig Minuten!
wir
we
warten
to wait
schon
already
fünfzig
fifty
die Minute
the minute
Questions & Answers about Wir warten schon fünfzig Minuten!
Why does the German sentence use the present tense (warten) instead of a past tense like "have been waiting"?
In German, if an action started in the past and is still happening right now, you use the present tense. Because they are still waiting, the sentence uses warten (wait), often paired with schon to show how long it has been going on. English uses "have been waiting" instead.
Does schon mean "already" or "for"?
schon usually means "already." When talking about how long something has been happening, German puts schon right before the amount of time. You can think of schon fünfzig Minuten as "for fifty minutes already" or "for fifty minutes now."
Is Minuten plural? How do we know?
Yes! The singular word for "minute" is die Minute. Like many German nouns that end in -e, it forms its plural by simply adding an -n, becoming die Minuten.
What is the rule for making numbers like "fifty" (fünfzig)?
To make the "tens" numbers in German, you usually take the base number and add -zig. So fünf (five) becomes fünfzig (fifty). Just remember that 20 (zwanzig), 30 (dreißig), and 70 (siebzig) are slight exceptions to this rule!
Learn Wir warten schon fünfzig Minuten and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free