Breakdown of Unsere Kalkulation war viel zu optimistisch.
sein
to be
viel
much / a lot
unser
our
zu
too (e.g., too big)
Questions & Answers about Unsere Kalkulation war viel zu optimistisch.
Does Kalkulation mean the exact same thing as 'calculation' in everyday English?
Not quite. While English uses 'calculation' for everything from simple math to business projections, German distinguishes them. Die Kalkulation is mostly used in business or project management to mean a cost estimate, pricing, or financial projection. If you are doing general math, you would usually use die Berechnung.
Why do we use viel zu here instead of sehr zu?
To say something is 'much too' or 'way too' plus an adjective, German always uses the fixed phrase viel zu (which maps perfectly to 'much too' in English). You cannot use sehr (very) here; sehr zu optimistisch is grammatically incorrect.
Since this lesson focuses on comparative clauses, how would we change this sentence to say 'Our calculation was more optimistic than we thought'?
You would change the adjective to its comparative form (optimistischer) and add a subordinate clause starting with als: Unsere Kalkulation war optimistischer, als wir dachten. Notice that because the als clause is subordinate, its conjugated verb (dachten) gets kicked to the very end of the sentence.