Breakdown of Ohne Shaker und Eiswürfel ist es nicht der Cocktail schlechthin.
sein
to be
es
it
und
and
nicht
not
ohne
without
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Cocktail
the cocktail
schlechthin
par excellence
der Shaker
the shaker
der Eiswürfel
the ice cube
Questions & Answers about Ohne Shaker und Eiswürfel ist es nicht der Cocktail schlechthin.
How does schlechthin work in this sentence, and does it always go at the very end?
The particle schlechthin emphasizes that something is the ultimate or perfect example of its kind, much like "par excellence" in English. It doesn't belong to the end of the sentence by default; rather, it must be placed directly after the noun it describes. Here, it sits right after Cocktail.
Why are there no articles before Shaker and Eiswürfel?
After the preposition ohne, articles are often dropped when talking about general, undefined items or concepts rather than specific objects. Note that ohne always triggers the accusative case, though the lack of articles makes it invisible here.
Why is the verb ist placed before the subject es?
The prepositional phrase Ohne Shaker und Eiswürfel takes up the entire first position in the sentence. To satisfy the strict German verb-second rule, the conjugated verb ist must take the second position, forcing the subject es into the third position.
Shaker and Cocktail are English loanwords. How do they behave grammatically here?
English loanwords are capitalized just like native German nouns, and they are assigned a gender. Here, both are masculine (der Shaker, der Cocktail). Shaker is in the accusative case because it follows ohne, while Cocktail is in the nominative case because it is the predicate following the verb ist.
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