Breakdown of Der Film war ziemlich blöd.
sein
to be
der Film
the movie / the film
ziemlich
fairly, rather
blöd
stupid, daft
Questions & Answers about Der Film war ziemlich blöd.
Why use war here instead of ist gewesen if this is a conversational sentence?
In spoken German, people usually use the perfect tense (like ist gewesen) for the past. However, the verbs sein (to be), haben (to have), and the modal verbs are exceptions. It is much more natural to use their simple past forms, like war, even in casual conversation.
Does ziemlich mean the film was extremely stupid, or just a little bit?
The word ziemlich translates to quite, fairly, or pretty. It is stronger than a little bit (ein bisschen) but not as strong as very (sehr). So the film was definitely stupid, but perhaps not the absolute worst.
What is the difference between blöd and dumm?
Both can translate to stupid, but they have different everyday uses. The word dumm usually refers to a literal lack of intelligence. The word blöd is more colloquial and is heavily used to describe things that are annoying, silly, or frustrating, which fits perfectly for a bad movie.
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