Breakdown of Mein Mitbewohner trinkt meine Milch, um Geld zu sparen.
trinken
to drink
das Geld
the money
mein
my
die Milch
the milk
sparen
to save
um ... zu
in order to
der Mitbewohner
the flatmate
Questions & Answers about Mein Mitbewohner trinkt meine Milch, um Geld zu sparen.
The lesson is about replacement pronouns like "meiner" and "meins". Why are we using "mein" and "meine" here?
Here, mein and meine are regular possessive words because they are placed directly in front of their nouns (Mitbewohner and Milch). You only use replacement pronouns when you completely drop the noun. However, if you wanted to drop the noun and say "He drinks mine", it would actually still be "Er trinkt meine". For feminine nouns like Milch, the regular possessive and the replacement pronoun share the exact same form! (But for your flatmate, mein would change to meiner if you dropped the noun).
Why do we need "um" and "zu" in the second half of the sentence?
The structure um ... zu translates to "in order to". It is used to express a goal or purpose. The word um starts the clause, and zu comes right before the infinitive verb at the very end of the sentence (zu sparen).
How does the word "Mitbewohner" translate to flatmate?
It is a compound noun made of mit (with) and Bewohner (resident or occupant). The word Bewohner comes from the verb wohnen (to live). So, a Mitbewohner is literally a "with-resident" — someone you share a living space with!
Could I leave out the comma before "um Geld zu sparen"?
No, in German, you must always use a comma to separate the main sentence from an um ... zu infinitive clause. It helps show exactly where the new thought about the purpose begins.
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