Breakdown of Eine kurze Mitteilung von dir kann meine Einsamkeit sofort leichter machen.
Questions & Answers about Eine kurze Mitteilung von dir kann meine Einsamkeit sofort leichter machen.
Because Mitteilung is grammatically feminine in German.
- Mitteilung = feminine noun
- Nominative singular feminine indefinite article: eine
- Adjective ending after eine in nominative feminine: -e → kurze
So:
- eine kurze Mitteilung = a short message (subject of the sentence)
If the noun were masculine, you would have:
- ein kurzer Brief (a short letter) – Brief is masculine
Both can be translated as message, but there’s a nuance:
Mitteilung
- Slightly more formal, a bit “official” or neutral
- Often used for notifications, announcements, written communications from institutions
- e.g. eine amtliche Mitteilung (an official notice)
Nachricht
- Very common in everyday speech
- Fits best for texts, WhatsApp messages, voicemail, etc.
- e.g. Schick mir eine Nachricht. (Send me a message.)
In your sentence, Eine kurze Nachricht von dir would sound more natural in many modern, personal contexts, but Mitteilung is not wrong; it just sounds a bit more formal or old‑fashioned.
After the preposition von, German always uses the dative case.
- Personal pronouns:
- Nominative: ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, sie
- Dative: mir, dir, ihm, ihr, ihm, uns, euch, ihnen
Since von requires dative, du changes to dir:
- von du ❌ (wrong case)
- von dir ✅ (correct dative)
Yes, grammatically that is fine, and it’s very natural.
Eine kurze Mitteilung von dir
- Literally: a short message from you
- Neutral emphasis on the message just happening to come from you
Deine kurze Mitteilung
- Literally: your short message
- Emphasizes possession: the message that belongs to you
In everyday speech, Deine kurze Nachricht kann … would probably be the most natural variant.
Because meine Einsamkeit is the direct object of the verb phrase leichter machen (to make easier).
Basic structure:
- Subject: Eine kurze Mitteilung von dir
- Verb: kann … machen
- Direct object (accusative): meine Einsamkeit
- Predicate complement: leichter
- Adverb: sofort
You’re asking: What can the message make easier? → meine Einsamkeit
That “what?” answer is the direct object → accusative:
- Nominative: meine Einsamkeit (same form)
- Accusative: meine Einsamkeit (also the same form for feminine nouns)
So you don’t see a form change here, but the function is accusative.
Because kann is a modal verb. In German:
- The modal verb (können, müssen, wollen, etc.) is conjugated and takes the second position.
- The main verb goes to the end of the clause in the infinitive.
Pattern:
- Subjekt + Modalverb + … + Vollverb (Infinitiv am Ende)
Applied to the sentence:
- Eine kurze Mitteilung von dir (subject)
- kann (modal verb, 2nd position)
- meine Einsamkeit sofort (other elements)
- leichter machen (main verb phrase at the end)
If you remove the modal verb, word order changes:
- Eine kurze Mitteilung von dir macht meine Einsamkeit sofort leichter.
(Now macht is the only verb and stays in 2nd position.)
Leichter is the comparative form of the adjective/adverb leicht (“light, easy”).
German forms comparatives by adding -er, not by using mehr (more) in most cases.
- Positive: leicht (light / easy)
- Comparative: leichter (lighter / easier)
- Superlative: am leichtesten / der/die/das leichteste
In the phrase etwas leichter machen, leichter functions like a predicative adjective describing the state of Einsamkeit after the change.
Using mehr leicht would sound wrong:
- mehr leicht ❌
- leichter ✅
Yes, and it’s actually very natural:
- Eine kurze Mitteilung von dir kann meine Einsamkeit sofort erleichtern.
Erleichtern literally means “to make easier / relieve / alleviate” and is often used for burdens, pain, worries, etc.
Nuance:
- leichter machen – more descriptive, literally to make lighter/easier
- erleichtern – one compact verb with the same meaning
Both are correct; erleichtern sounds a bit more concise and stylistically smooth.
German adverbs like sofort are quite flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:
- Eine kurze Mitteilung von dir kann meine Einsamkeit sofort leichter machen.
- Eine kurze Mitteilung von dir kann sofort meine Einsamkeit leichter machen.
- Eine kurze Mitteilung von dir kann meine Einsamkeit leichter machen, sofort. (spoken, with emphasis)
Most natural are 1 and 2. Putting sofort right before the part you want to stress is common.
Your version (1) is perfectly idiomatic.
All can suggest quickness, but with small nuances:
- sofort – immediately, without delay
- Strongest, most neutral for “right away”
- gleich – soon / in a moment / shortly
- Often “in a little while”, not always strictly immediate
- direkt – directly / straight away
- Can mean “immediately”, but often also “straight to” in a spatial sense
In this emotional context, sofort fits best:
- … kann meine Einsamkeit sofort leichter machen. ✅
- … kann meine Einsamkeit gleich leichter machen. (sounds more like “soon”)
- … kann meine Einsamkeit direkt leichter machen. (understandable, but a bit less idiomatic here)
In German, all nouns are capitalized. Einsamkeit is a noun meaning loneliness.
It comes from the adjective einsam (lonely) plus the suffix -keit, which turns many adjectives into abstract nouns:
- einsam → Einsamkeit (lonely → loneliness)
- möglich → Möglichkeit (possible → possibility)
- frei → Freiheit (free → freedom)
You can’t usually pluralize Einsamkeit; it’s typically an uncountable abstract noun.
The sentence is informal because of dir (second person singular, familiar).
To make it formal, you’d use Ihnen (Dative of Sie):
- Eine kurze Mitteilung von Ihnen kann meine Einsamkeit sofort leichter machen.
Other possible formal versions:
- Ihre kurze Mitteilung kann meine Einsamkeit sofort erleichtern.
(Here Ihre = your [formal], capitalized)