Breakdown of Reparieren sie die Solarzelle ihretwegen um Viertel nach drei?
sie
they
drei
three
um
at (time)
reparieren
to repair
Viertel nach
quarter past
ihretwegen
for her sake / because of them
die Solarzelle
the solar cell
Questions & Answers about Reparieren sie die Solarzelle ihretwegen um Viertel nach drei?
Why is there a t in ihretwegen, and how is this word formed?
The word ihretwegen combines the pronoun ihr (her) and the preposition wegen (because of). Historically, it comes from a genitive form, and the -et- was added to link the two parts and make pronunciation easier. You will see this same -et- or -t- in other forms like meinetwegen (because of me) and seinetwegen (because of him).
Since ihr can mean "her", "their", or "you", how do we know ihretwegen means "for her sake" here?
Without context, it is actually ambiguous! The word ihretwegen with a lowercase i can mean "for her sake" or "for their sake." If it were capitalized (Ihretwegen), it would mean "for your (formal) sake." Here, we only know it means "for her sake" from the provided English translation, but in real life, the surrounding conversation would make the target obvious.
I learned the TeKaMoLo rule (Time, Cause, Manner, Place). Why is the cause (ihretwegen) placed before the time (um Viertel nach drei) here?
You are right that TeKaMoLo generally places time before cause. However, ihretwegen is a pronominal form. In German, pronouns and pronominal words are considered "lighter" and have a strong tendency to shift leftward (earlier) in a sentence, which often pushes them in front of heavier, multi-word adverbial phrases like um Viertel nach drei.
Why is Viertel capitalized in um Viertel nach drei?
In standard German time expressions, fractions of an hour like Viertel (quarter) are treated as nouns, so they are capitalized. Notice that you do not use an article here; you simply say um Viertel nach (at a quarter past) or um Viertel vor (at a quarter to).
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