Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mich weiter.

This success experience motivates me further.

Breakdown of Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mich weiter.

• mich: me
• dieses: this
• weiter: further
• motivieren: to motivate
• das Erfolgserlebnis: the success experience

Questions & Answers about Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mich weiter.

What does Erfolgserlebnis mean exactly, and how is it different from just Erfolg?

Erfolg means success in a general sense – a successful result, an achievement.

Erlebnis means experience (something you personally live through).

Erfolgserlebnis is a compound of these two and means something like:

• a specific experience of success,
• a moment of achievement,
• a feeling of success after you have accomplished something.

So while Erfolg can be abstract (success in life, in business, in school), Erfolgserlebnis is more concrete and emotional: that particular success that you really felt and noticed.

Why is it dieses and not dieser or diese?

Because Erfolgserlebnis is:

• neuter gender: das Erfolgserlebnis
• singular
• nominative case (it is the subject of the sentence)

The demonstrative pronoun dies- must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case:

• der Erfolg → dieser Erfolg (masculine, nominative singular)
• die Erfahrung → diese Erfahrung (feminine, nominative singular)
• das Erfolgserlebnis → dieses Erfolgserlebnis (neuter, nominative singular)

So dieses is the correct form here.

What is the grammatical role of mich in this sentence?

mich is the direct object and is in the accusative case.

• Subject (nominative): Dieses Erfolgserlebnis
• Verb: motiviert
• Direct object (accusative): mich (it motivates me)
• Adverb: weiter

You use mich (accusative) after verbs like motivieren, sehen, lieben, etc., when I am the person directly affected by the action.

Using mir (dative) would be wrong here:
✗ Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mir – ungrammatical.

What does weiter mean here?

In this context, weiter means roughly:

• further
• going on
• to keep going / to continue

So motiviert mich weiter can be understood as:

• keeps me motivated
• motivates me to keep going
• continues to motivate me

It does not mean “farther” in a spatial sense here; it’s about continuation, not distance.

Why is weiter at the end of the sentence? Could it go somewhere else?

German main clauses usually put:

1. The conjugated verb in second position: motiviert
2. Other elements (objects, adverbs, etc.) often go after that.

Standard and most natural here is:

• Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mich weiter.

You can move the object and adverb around a bit:

• Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mich weiter. (normal)
• Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert weiter mich. (grammatically possible, but sounds odd and marked)
• Weiter motiviert mich dieses Erfolgserlebnis. (stylistically very marked, poetic/emphatic)

In everyday German, you should keep weiter at the end here; it sounds most natural.

Could I say Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mich, weiterzumachen? What’s the difference?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct and very natural:

• Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mich weiter.
  → This success experience keeps me motivated / continues to motivate me.

• Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mich, weiterzumachen.
  → This success experience motivates me to keep going / to continue.

The version with weiterzumachen makes the “keep going” part more explicit.
The original sentence with just weiter leaves that a bit more implicit and sounds a bit shorter and more colloquial.

What is the difference between weiter and weiterhin here?

Both can be used, but with a slightly different feel:

• motiviert mich weiter
  → motivates me further / keeps motivating me.
  This is more colloquial and direct.

• motiviert mich weiterhin
  → continues to motivate me / still motivates me.
  This sounds a bit more formal or written, and puts a small emphasis on still / continuing over time.

Both are correct; in everyday spoken German, weiter is more common in this short sentence.

Could I leave out weiter and just say Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mich?

Yes, that is completely correct:

• Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mich.
  → This success experience motivates me.

However, you lose the nuance of continuation or ongoing motivation.
With weiter, the idea is:

• It keeps motivating me (over time)
• It motivates me to keep going

So both sentences are correct; the one with weiter is slightly more specific.

Is Erfolgserlebnis countable? How would I use it in other forms?

Yes, Erfolgserlebnis is a countable noun.

• Singular: das Erfolgserlebnis

  • ein Erfolgserlebnis – a (single) success experience
  • dieses Erfolgserlebnis – this success experience

• Plural: die Erfolgserlebnisse

  • mehrere Erfolgserlebnisse – several success experiences
  • Solche Erfolgserlebnisse motivieren mich. – Such success experiences motivate me.

You typically use it when you talk about specific, concrete moments of achievement, not about success in general.

Why is the verb motiviert in the simple present? In English I’d probably say “keeps motivating me” or “is motivating me.”

German Präsens (simple present) is used in many places where English would use the present progressive:

• Dieses Erfolgserlebnis motiviert mich weiter.
  can correspond to:
  • This success experience motivates me further.
  • This success experience keeps motivating me.
  • This success experience is motivating me to keep going.

German doesn’t form a progressive tense with “to be + -ing” the way English does, so the simple present motiviert often covers both “motivates” and “is motivating.”