Question 1

Since this lesson is about selbst, how would I say "The film itself was fairly long"?

Accepted Answer

You would add selbst (or selber in casual speech) right after the noun it emphasizes. So you would say, Der Film selbst war ziemlich lang. This highlights that the film was long, even if other parts of the evening (like the previews) were not.

Question 2

Does ziemlich mean "very" or just "a little"?

Accepted Answer

It sits right in the middle, similar to "fairly", "quite", or "rather" in English. It is stronger than ein bisschen (a little) but not as strong as sehr (very). So the film was noticeably long, but not extremely long.

Question 3

In spoken German, would people say Der Film ist ziemlich lang gewesen instead of using war?

Accepted Answer

Usually, no. Even though spoken German strongly prefers the spoken past (Perfekt) for most verbs, the verb sein (to be) is a major exception. Native speakers almost always use its simple past form (war) in everyday speech because it is much faster and easier to say than ist gewesen.

Question 4

Why doesn't the adjective lang have an ending here?

Accepted Answer

Because it comes after the verb war and describes the subject, rather than sitting directly in front of a noun. In German, these predicate adjectives stay in their basic dictionary form. You would only add an ending if it were directly in front of the noun, like in ein ziemlich langer Film (a fairly long film).

Der Film war ziemlich lang.

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