Breakdown of Ein langer Streit ist erwiesenermaßen schädlich.
sein
to be
ein
a, an (eine)
lang
long
der Streit
the argument, fight
schädlich
harmful
erwiesenermaßen
demonstrably
Questions & Answers about Ein langer Streit ist erwiesenermaßen schädlich.
How exactly does the suffix -ermaßen change the meaning of erwiesen here?
The word erwiesenermaßen is built from the past participle erwiesen (from erweisen, to prove) plus the suffix -ermaßen. This suffix creates an adverb that frames a statement as an established fact. Instead of just describing a noun as proven, it tells us that the whole idea of the argument being harmful is a proven fact (demonstrably).
Could I just use erwiesen instead of erwiesenermaßen before schädlich?
Using just erwiesen is sometimes understood but sounds clunky. Adding -ermaßen is the standard, elegant way in German to turn a participle into an adverb that comments on the truth of the whole sentence, rather than just directly modifying the adjective next to it.
If I want to emphasize that this is a proven fact, can I start the sentence with erwiesenermaßen?
Absolutely. You can say Erwiesenermaßen ist ein langer Streit schädlich. Just remember that because erwiesenermaßen now takes the first position in the sentence, the verb ist must stay in the second position, which pushes the subject ein langer Streit to the third position.
Since Streit is the subject, why does the adjective lang get an -er ending after ein?
This is a common trip-up even at higher levels. Streit is a masculine noun in the nominative case. Because the indefinite article ein has no ending here to indicate that it is masculine, the adjective has to do the heavy lifting. Therefore, lang takes the strong masculine nominative ending -er to become langer.
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