Breakdown of Betrunken sollte niemand Auto fahren.
das Auto
the car
fahren
to drive, to travel
sollen
should / ought to
niemand
no one
betrunken
drunk
Questions & Answers about Betrunken sollte niemand Auto fahren.
Why is there no article before Auto?
In German, Auto fahren (driving) is treated as a single activity, much like Fahrrad fahren (cycling) or Klavier spielen (playing piano). When a noun and verb form a fixed expression for a general activity, the noun usually doesn't take an article.
Why is Betrunken at the very beginning of the sentence?
German allows you to move almost any element to the first position to emphasize it. By putting Betrunken first, the speaker strongly highlights the condition of being drunk. The standard, more neutral word order would be Niemand sollte betrunken Auto fahren.
Is sollte in the past tense here?
Not in meaning. While sollte is the simple past (Präteritum) form of sollen, it is also the Konjunktiv II (subjunctive) form. Here, it is used as Konjunktiv II to express a strong recommendation or moral obligation ('ought to' or 'should'), referring to a general rule in the present.
Betrunken is a past participle. Why doesn't it have an ending?
It is the past participle of sich betrinken (to get drunk), but here it functions as an adverb describing how someone shouldn't drive. In German, unlike English which adds '-ly', adjectives and participles used as adverbs don't take any declension endings.
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