Question 1

How would I add selbst to this sentence to emphasize 'The film itself'?

Accepted Answer

You would put it right after the noun it emphasizes: Der Film selbst war echt cool. You would use this if you were just talking about something else, like the terrible cinema seats, but want to contrast it with the movie itself. You can also use selber, which means the exact same thing but is more casual.

Question 2

Is echt the only way to say 'really' here?

Accepted Answer

No, you could also use wirklich (really) or sehr (very). However, echt is extremely common in everyday German to intensify an adjective, just like 'genuinely' or 'really' in English.

Question 3

The word cool is English! Does it take German adjective endings?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Even though it is borrowed from English, it behaves like a regular German adjective. Here it comes after the verb war (was), so it doesn't need an ending. If you put it right before the noun, you would add standard German adjective endings, like in ein cooler Film (a cool film).

Question 4

Why use the simple past war here instead of the spoken past ist gewesen?

Accepted Answer

Even in casual spoken German, the verbs sein (to be) and haben (to have) are almost always used in their simple past (Präteritum) forms: war and hatte. Saying Der Film ist echt cool gewesen is grammatically fine, but Germans rarely say it because it sounds unnecessarily clunky.

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