Breakdown of Wir vollziehen die Lieferkette genau nach.
wir
we
genau
exactly / precise, exact
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
die Lieferkette
the supply chain
nachvollziehen
to trace
Questions & Answers about Wir vollziehen die Lieferkette genau nach.
I thought nachvollziehen usually meant "to understand" or "to relate to". Can it also mean "to trace"?
Yes! While you often hear nachvollziehen used for comprehending someone's thoughts or feelings (like Ich kann das gut nachvollziehen), its more literal meaning is to follow a process step-by-step. When talking about die Lieferkette (the supply chain) or other business processes, it translates perfectly to "tracing" or "tracking".
Why is nach at the end of the sentence? Doesn't the prefix voll- make verbs inseparable?
It's true that the base verb vollziehen (to carry out or execute) is inseparable. However, nachvollziehen adds the prefix nach-, which is always separable. When you use it in a main clause, the separable prefix nach goes to the very end of the sentence, while the conjugated part (vollziehen) stays in the second position.
If I wanted to use the current lesson's grammar to ask "To what extent do we trace the supply chain?", how would I phrase it?
You would ask: Inwieweit vollziehen wir die Lieferkette nach? or Inwiefern vollziehen wir die Lieferkette nach? Both words work identically here as question words (interrogative adverbs) occupying the first position, so the conjugated verb vollziehen follows immediately in the second position.
Could I use verfolgen instead of nachvollziehen here to mean "trace"?
You could, but the nuance changes slightly. Die Lieferkette verfolgen sounds a bit more like tracking a live shipment as it moves. Die Lieferkette nachvollziehen emphasizes looking back at the steps to reconstruct or verify exactly where something came from, which is the standard phrasing for supply chain auditing.
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