Breakdown of Das Essen in der Mensa unserer Hochschule ist günstig, aber manchmal langweilig.
Questions & Answers about Das Essen in der Mensa unserer Hochschule ist günstig, aber manchmal langweilig.
In German, die Mensa means a university (or school) cafeteria / canteen, i.e., the place where students eat.
It is not related to English men or mental. Historically it comes from Latin and simply refers to a place where meals are served, especially at educational institutions.
So in der Mensa here means in the cafeteria (of the university).
German distinguishes between:
- essen (lowercase) = the verb “to eat”
- das Essen (capitalized) = the noun “food” or “the meal”
In the sentence:
- Das Essen in der Mensa … = The food in the cafeteria …
Because it’s used as a noun (subject of the sentence), it must be capitalized. All German nouns are capitalized.
Essen as a noun is neuter, so it takes the article das:
- das Essen – the food / the meal
- des Essens – of the food (genitive)
- dem Essen – to/for the food (dative)
- das Essen – (object) the food (accusative)
There is generally no plural form die Essen in the sense of “foods” in everyday language. You would usually express that idea differently (e.g. die Gerichte = the dishes).
The preposition in can be followed by dative or accusative:
- in
- dative = location (where something is)
- in
- accusative = direction (where something is going)
Here, we are describing where the food is available, not movement:
- Das Essen ist in der Mensa. = The food is in the cafeteria. (location → dative)
So Mensa (feminine) in dative singular is der, not die:
- nominative: die Mensa
- dative: der Mensa
Therefore: in der Mensa.
You would say in die Mensa when expressing movement into it:
- Ich gehe in die Mensa. = I am going into the cafeteria.
unserer Hochschule means of our university / college.
Grammatically:
- Hochschule is feminine: die Hochschule.
- Here, it is in the genitive singular (showing possession): der Hochschule.
- The possessive unser- (our) must agree in gender, number, and case with Hochschule.
Feminine, genitive singular → ending -er:
- unserer Hochschule = of our university
So the full phrase:
- die Mensa unserer Hochschule = the cafeteria of our university
This is like English the cafeteria of our university, just with the typical German genitive structure.
It belongs to Mensa:
- die Mensa unserer Hochschule = our university’s cafeteria
The structure is:
- Das Essen (subject)
- in der Mensa (prepositional phrase: where?)
- unserer Hochschule (genitive attribute to Mensa: whose cafeteria?)
You can think of it as:
- Das Essen in der Mensa unserer Hochschule …
→ The food in our university’s cafeteria …
If unserer Hochschule were meant to describe Essen, German would normally place it right after Essen or use a different construction. As written, it clearly attaches to Mensa.
In German, aber is a coordinating conjunction (like “but” in English).
German grammar requires a comma before most coordinating conjunctions that connect two clauses:
- Das Essen in der Mensa unserer Hochschule ist günstig, aber manchmal langweilig.
This is treated as two related parts:
- Das Essen … ist günstig
- (Das Essen ist) manchmal langweilig
They are joined by aber, and German marks this with a comma. In English, the comma before but is optional and style-based; in German it is required here.
The “full” form would be:
- Das Essen in der Mensa unserer Hochschule ist günstig, aber manchmal ist es langweilig.
However, in German (and in English) we often omit repeated verbs and pronouns when they are clearly understood from context. So:
- … ist günstig, aber manchmal langweilig.
is short for:
- … ist günstig, aber manchmal ist (es) langweilig.
This is perfectly normal and very common in German: the second ist and es are simply left out to avoid repetition.
The subject is Das Essen.
- Das Essen … ist …
Essen is singular, so the verb sein must also be in the 3rd person singular:
- es ist → das Essen ist
If the subject were plural (for example, die Gerichte – the dishes), the verb would also be plural:
- Die Gerichte in der Mensa sind günstig, aber manchmal langweilig.
Both günstig and billig can refer to low price, but they have different nuances:
- günstig = reasonably priced / good value for money / inexpensive
- usually positive or neutral
- suggests you get a good deal
- billig = cheap
- can be neutral, but often has a negative undertone: poor quality, “cheap and nasty”
So saying:
- Das Essen … ist günstig
→ The food is inexpensive / affordable / good value. - Das Essen … ist billig
→ can sound like “the food is cheap (maybe low quality)”, depending on tone.
For describing a low price positively, günstig is generally the safer choice.
Correct: langweilig means boring (causing boredom), not “bored”.
- langweilig = boring
- gelangweilt = bored
In the context of food, langweilig usually means:
- not very interesting
- little variety
- bland, always the same dishes
So Das Essen … ist … manchmal langweilig =
“The food is sometimes boring / not very exciting.”
The usual, natural order is:
- ist manchmal langweilig
Positioning:
- ist (verb)
- manchmal (adverb of frequency)
- langweilig (predicate adjective)
German prefers time/frequency adverbs before adjectives in such predicate structures.
You might occasionally hear langweilig manchmal in spoken language as a special emphasis (like “boring, sometimes”), but manchmal langweilig is the normal, neutral word order for “sometimes boring”.
That would sound wrong or at least very unnatural.
- Das Essen in der Mensa unserer Hochschule
→ “The food in our university’s cafeteria”
Your version:
- Das Essen in der Mensa ist günstig in unserer Hochschule
sounds like “The food in the cafeteria is cheap in our university”, which is not how Germans structure this idea and is also confusing about what modifies what.
The natural way is to keep the genitive directly after the noun it belongs to:
- die Mensa unserer Hochschule = our university’s cafeteria
So the original sentence’s structure is the idiomatic one.
Yes, there is a nuance:
- Universität = university (academic, research-oriented, traditional universities)
- Hochschule = a more general term for institutions of higher education, including:
- Universitäten (universities)
- Fachhochschulen (universities of applied sciences)
- other specialized higher-education institutions
In practice, many institutions officially call themselves Hochschule (e.g. Technische Hochschule, Hochschule für Musik).
So unserer Hochschule means “our higher-education institution”, which may or may not be a classical Universität; the sentence is neutral and fits both a university and a university of applied sciences.
Yes, that’s also correct and natural.
German allows you to move the place phrase to the beginning:
- Das Essen in der Mensa unserer Hochschule ist günstig, aber manchmal langweilig.
- In der Mensa unserer Hochschule ist das Essen günstig, aber manchmal langweilig.
Both mean the same. The second version puts a bit more emphasis on the location (“In our university’s cafeteria, the food is cheap but sometimes boring”). The verb ist remains in second position after the initial phrase, as required by German word order.