Breakdown of Manche Leute zweifeln an sich selbst, obwohl ihre Arbeit gut ist.
Questions & Answers about Manche Leute zweifeln an sich selbst, obwohl ihre Arbeit gut ist.
All of these are possible, but they have slightly different flavors:
Manche Leute
- Very common, everyday German.
- Literally: some people.
- Neutral, slightly vague group.
Einige Leute
- Also means some people, but can sound a bit more counting/neutral, like several people or a few people.
- Sometimes feels a bit more precise or factual than manche.
Manche Menschen
- Menschen is a bit more formal or serious than Leute.
- You might use Menschen in written texts, speeches, or when you want to sound a bit more elevated or philosophical.
Grammatically, all three are fine. The sentence with Manche Leute is just the most natural conversational choice.
Manche is an indefinite determiner, similar to some in English.
In Manche Leute zweifeln an sich selbst, it is:
- Nominative case
- Plural
- Used before a plural noun (Leute)
Basic forms of manch-:
- Singular:
- mancher (masc. nom.) – mancher Mann
- manche (fem. nom.) – manche Frau
- manches (neut. nom.) – manches Kind
- Plural (all genders):
- manche Leute, manche Menschen, manche Kinder
Meaning-wise, manche = some, but often with the nuance not all, but a noticeable group.
In German, zweifeln almost always needs the preposition an to show what you doubt:
- zweifeln an etwas / an jemandem = to doubt something / someone
So you say:
- Ich zweifle an mir (selbst). – I doubt myself.
- Sie zweifelt an ihrer Entscheidung. – She doubts her decision.
You cannot say *zweifeln etwas or *zweifeln sich the way English says doubt something or doubt yourself.
The pattern is:
zweifeln an + Dativ
In this sentence:
- an = preposition
- sich selbst = reflexive pronoun (dative) + emphasis
→ an sich selbst = about themselves
With zweifeln, the preposition an is fixed; it’s simply the way the verb is constructed in standard German:
- an etwas zweifeln = to have doubts about something
You cannot normally replace an with other prepositions here:
- *zweifeln über
- *zweifeln von
are ungrammatical in this meaning.
If you want a different construction without an, you usually change the verb:
- etwas bezweifeln – to doubt something
- Ich bezweifle seine Geschichte. – I doubt his story.
- Zweifel an etwas haben – to have doubts about something
- Ich habe Zweifel an mir selbst. – I have doubts about myself.
You can say:
- an sich zweifeln – to doubt oneself
but an sich alone is also a common idiom meaning in itself / as such:
- Die Idee an sich ist gut. – The idea in itself is good.
To avoid confusion and to make it very clear that you mean oneself, speakers often say:
- an sich selbst zweifeln
Here:
- sich = reflexive pronoun (refers back to Leute)
- selbst = adds emphasis, like themselves in themselves, personally
So an sich selbst zweifeln = to doubt oneself (one’s own abilities, value, etc.) very clearly and emphatically.
The preposition an with zweifeln always takes the dative case:
- an mir, an dir, an ihm, an ihr, an uns, an euch, an ihnen, an sich
The reflexive forms (dative):
- ich → an mir (selbst)
- du → an dir (selbst)
- er/sie/es → an sich (selbst)
- wir → an uns (selbst)
- ihr → an euch (selbst)
- sie/Sie → an sich (selbst)
In the sentence, the subject is Manche Leute (3rd person plural), so the reflexive form is:
- an sich selbst (dative)
You would only say an mir selbst or an dir selbst if the subject is ich or du:
- Ich zweifle an mir selbst.
- Du zweifelst an dir selbst.
- sich = the basic reflexive pronoun (himself/herself/itself/themselves)
- selbst = an intensifier emphasizing the person themselves
So:
Manche Leute zweifeln an sich.
= Some people doubt themselves.
(grammatical and understandable)Manche Leute zweifeln an sich selbst.
= Some people doubt themselves (they personally; strong emphasis).
Adding selbst makes it sound more personal and stronger, a bit like English they really doubt themselves or they doubt themselves as people.
Obwohl introduces a subordinate clause. In German, every subordinate clause is separated from the main clause by a comma.
Structure here:
- Main clause: Manche Leute zweifeln an sich selbst
- Subordinate clause: obwohl ihre Arbeit gut ist
So the comma is obligatory:
Manche Leute zweifeln an sich selbst, obwohl ihre Arbeit gut ist.
You would do the same with other subordinating conjunctions:
- …, weil …
- …, dass …
- …, wenn …
In German, subordinate clauses introduced by subordinating conjunctions like obwohl, weil, dass, wenn have verb-final word order:
- Main clause (verb in 2nd position):
- Ihre Arbeit ist gut. – Her/Their work is good.
- Subordinate clause:
- …, obwohl ihre Arbeit gut ist.
The pattern:
obwohl / weil / dass / wenn + [subject] + [other elements] + [finite verb]
So ist must go to the end: … gut ist, not *… ist gut inside this obwohl-clause.
Gut here is a predicative adjective (it describes the subject via a verb like sein, not directly before a noun).
Rules:
- Attributive adjective (before a noun) gets endings:
- gute Arbeit – good work
- Predicative adjective (after sein, werden, bleiben) never gets endings:
- Die Arbeit ist gut.
So:
- Correct: Ihre Arbeit ist gut. / obwohl ihre Arbeit gut ist.
- Incorrect: *Ihre Arbeit ist gute.
Position:
- In a predicative structure, the usual order is adjective + verb:
- gut ist, schwierig wird, möglich bleibt, etc.
Obwohl introduces a concessive clause – it shows a contrast or contradiction.
In English: although / even though.
Here:
- Fact A: ihre Arbeit ist gut – their work is good.
- Contradictory reaction B: Manche Leute zweifeln an sich selbst – they doubt themselves anyway.
So the structure is:
B, obwohl A.
They doubt themselves, although their work is good.
You could also reverse the order:
Obwohl ihre Arbeit gut ist, zweifeln manche Leute an sich selbst.
You can express a similar idea with trotzdem, but the structure changes:
With obwohl (subordinate clause):
- Manche Leute zweifeln an sich selbst, obwohl ihre Arbeit gut ist.
With trotzdem (adverb in a main clause):
- Ihre Arbeit ist gut. Trotzdem zweifeln manche Leute an sich selbst.
Differences:
- obwohl = subordinating conjunction; introduces a clause with verb at the end.
- trotzdem = adverb; belongs in the main clause, typically in the verb-second frame (often in position 1 or 3).
You cannot simply replace obwohl with trotzdem without changing the sentence structure.
Ihre (lowercase i) is a possessive pronoun for sie:
- Singular: sie = she → ihre Arbeit = her work
- Plural: sie = they → ihre Arbeit = their work
In this sentence:
- Subject: Manche Leute = some people (plural)
- So ihre Arbeit most naturally refers back to these people → their work.
If Ihre had a capital I, it would usually mean your (formal):
- Ihre Arbeit ist gut. = Your work is good (formal Sie)
Since we’re talking about Manche Leute, we read ihre as their.
Outside of any conjunction, the normal main-clause sentence is:
- Ihre Arbeit ist gut.
But inside a subordinate clause introduced by obwohl, the conjugated verb goes to the end:
- obwohl ihre Arbeit gut ist
You cannot say *obwohl ihre Arbeit ist gut because in German:
Subordinate clause = conjunction + subject + rest + finite verb at the end
The phrase ihre Arbeit gut forms the predicate group, and ist comes last in the clause.
Both mean people, but with different nuances:
Leute
- Very common in spoken German.
- Neutral, informal, everyday.
- Almost always plural; singular is odd (*ein Leut doesn’t exist in standard German).
Menschen
- Slightly more formal, can sound more serious, emotional, or philosophical.
- Used in writing, speeches, or when emphasizing human beings as such.
So you could also say:
- Manche Menschen zweifeln an sich selbst, obwohl ihre Arbeit gut ist.
That sounds a bit more serious or general than Manche Leute.