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Du musst mindestens acht Stunden schlafen.

Du musst mindestens acht Stunden schlafen.
You have to sleep at least eight hours.
From Lesson 251:Measurement plurals (zwei Liter, drei Glas)·German

Questions & Answers about Du musst mindestens acht Stunden schlafen.

The current lesson says units of measurement don't take a plural ending. Why does Stunden have an -n here?
The rule that units of measurement don't change in the plural only applies to masculine and neuter nouns (like zwei Liter or drei Gramm). Because die Stunde (the hour) is a feminine noun, it follows standard plural rules and takes an -n ending to become acht Stunden.
Why use mindestens for 'at least' instead of wenigstens?
Mindestens is the right word to use when dealing with measurable numbers, amounts, or quantities to set a mathematical minimum. Wenigstens is used more for expressing a minimum expectation or a silver lining, like saying 'At least it is not raining.'
What grammatical case is acht Stunden in this sentence?
It is in the accusative case. In German, a specific duration of time that answers the question 'how long?' is always expressed in the accusative, even though the plural noun Stunden looks identical to its nominative form here.
Why is schlafen at the very end of the sentence?
This is a great reminder of the modal verb 'bracket' effect. Because the sentence uses the conjugated modal verb musst in the second position, the main action verb (schlafen) is pushed all the way to the end of the clause in its infinitive form.

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