Breakdown of Viele Leute trinken etwas, aber mehrere Gäste essen nichts.
etwas
something
trinken
to drink
aber
but
die Leute
the people
viel
much / a lot
essen
to eat
nichts
nothing
der Gast
the guest
mehrere
several
Questions & Answers about Viele Leute trinken etwas, aber mehrere Gäste essen nichts.
Why do we use viele here instead of just viel?
Because Leute (people) is a countable plural noun. In German, you use viele for countable things (meaning 'many') and viel for uncountable things like water or time (meaning 'much').
Do the words etwas and nichts ever get endings like viele does?
No! Both etwas (something) and nichts (nothing) are invariable pronouns. This means they never change their endings, no matter what grammatical case they are in or what their role is in the sentence.
How exactly does mehrere compare to viele?
mehrere means 'several', while viele means 'many'. They both behave like plural adjectives. Here, they both end in -e because they describe plural nouns in the nominative case without a definite article (like 'the') in front of them.
Why doesn't the word aber push the verb essen to the end of the sentence?
The word aber is a coordinating conjunction, which means it simply links two regular sentences together. It sits in 'position zero', meaning mehrere Gäste is in position one, and the verb essen stays in its normal spot at position two.
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