Breakdown of Ich habe den Ehrgeiz, immer souverän zu bleiben.
ich
I
haben
to have
immer
always
bleiben
to stay
Questions & Answers about Ich habe den Ehrgeiz, immer souverän zu bleiben.
Why do we use the infinitive clause immer souverän zu bleiben here instead of a dass-clause?
Because the subject of the main clause (Ich) is the exact same person doing the action in the second half. Since you are the one with the ambition and you are also the one remaining confident, you can reduce the underlying dass ich immer souverän bleibe to a shorter, more elegant zu-infinitive clause.
Could I still use a dass-clause for this sentence if I wanted to?
Grammatically, saying Ich habe den Ehrgeiz, dass ich immer souverän bleibe is understood, but it sounds very clunky to native speakers. Whenever the subjects are identical, German strongly prefers the zu-infinitive.
Why does souverän mean confident here rather than sovereign?
While it shares a root with the English word sovereign, in modern German souverän is a highly common adjective used to describe someone who is composed, confident, and completely in control of a situation. It implies you handle challenges effortlessly without getting flustered.
Is the comma before immer mandatory in this sentence?
Yes. While commas are sometimes optional for very short zu-infinitive clauses, they are strictly required when the infinitive clause explains a specific noun in the main clause. Here, the infinitive clause directly describes the noun den Ehrgeiz.