Breakdown of Der Schauspieler hat sowohl viele Sonderwünsche als auch skurrile Angewohnheiten.
haben
to have
viel
much / a lot
der Schauspieler
the actor
sowohl ... als auch
both ... and
die Angewohnheit
the habit (personal quirk or mannerism)
skurril
bizarre
der Sonderwunsch
the special request
Questions & Answers about Der Schauspieler hat sowohl viele Sonderwünsche als auch skurrile Angewohnheiten.
How would I use the pseudo-cleft structure from this lesson to emphasize what the actor has?
You can turn this into a 'was...' sentence by moving the things he has to the end. Because the requests and habits are plural, you must use sind instead of ist to agree with them. The emphasized sentence becomes: Was der Schauspieler hat, sind sowohl viele Sonderwünsche als auch skurrile Angewohnheiten.
Why is there no comma before als auch?
The two-part connector sowohl ... als auch (meaning 'both ... and') joins two items of equal grammatical weight. Just like with the simple word und, German grammar rules state you do not place a comma between elements connected this way.
Why does the adjective skurrile end in -e here?
It modifies the plural noun Angewohnheiten in the accusative case. Because there is no article before it (such as die or seine), the adjective takes the strong ending -e to indicate the plural accusative form.
Is skurrile related to the English word 'scurrilous'?
They share the same Latin root, but they are false friends. In German, skurril simply means quirky, bizarre, or eccentric. The English word 'scurrilous' means defamatory or insulting, which would be translated to German as something like verleumderisch.
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