Breakdown of Die Hälfte war gut, der Rest war schlecht.
sein
to be
gut
good / well
schlecht
bad
die Hälfte
the half
der Rest
the rest, the remainder
Questions & Answers about Die Hälfte war gut, der Rest war schlecht.
Why do we use die Hälfte here instead of a fractional number ending in "-tel"?
The English translation says "Half of it", but there is no "of it" in the German sentence. Is a word missing?
No, nothing is missing! German often drops the "of it" (davon) when the context is obvious. You could say Die Hälfte davon war gut, but just saying Die Hälfte is completely correct and sounds very natural.
Does der Rest have anything to do with resting or taking a break?
No, der Rest is a partial "false friend." It only means "the rest" in the sense of a remainder or what is left over. If you want to talk about resting or taking a break, you would use a word like die Pause (the break) or the verb sich ausruhen (to rest).
Why does this sentence use the simple past war instead of the spoken past ist gewesen?
While spoken German strongly prefers the spoken past (Perfekt) for most verbs, sein (to be) and haben (to have) are big exceptions. Native speakers almost always use their simple past (Präteritum) forms—war and hatte—even in casual, everyday conversation.
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