Du bist bestimmt müde.

to be

Breakdown of Du bist bestimmt müde.

• du: you
• müde: tired
• bestimmt: certainly

Questions & Answers about Du bist bestimmt müde.

What does bestimmt mean in this sentence?

It’s an adverb meaning roughly surely / certainly / definitely. In everyday speech it can also sound like I’m pretty sure / you’re probably. It expresses the speaker’s confident assumption about the whole statement, not the degree of tiredness itself.

Why is the word order Du bist bestimmt müde and not Du bist müde bestimmt?

German main clauses keep the finite verb in the second position, and sentence adverbs like bestimmt usually come right after that verb. So:

• Natural: Du bist bestimmt müde.
• Unnatural/marked: Du bist müde bestimmt. (sounds odd in standard German) You can front bestimmt for emphasis: Bestimmt bist du müde.

How is bestimmt different from words like wohl, wahrscheinlich, sicher, or vermutlich?

• bestimmt: confident assumption; everyday and neutral.
• wahrscheinlich / vermutlich: likely/probably; a bit more tentative than bestimmt.
• wohl: soft, polite assumption; very common and slightly hedged.
• sicher / sicherlich: certainly/surely; can sound a bit formal or emphatic.
• Stronger: ganz bestimmt, garantiert = definitely/for sure (very emphatic).