Manche Kommilitoninnen haben starke Prüfungsangst und suchen deshalb nach mehr Motivation.

Some (female) fellow students have strong exam anxiety and therefore look for more motivation.

Breakdown of Manche Kommilitoninnen haben starke Prüfungsangst und suchen deshalb nach mehr Motivation.

• und: and
• haben: to have
• mehr: more
• deshalb: therefore
• stark: strong
• manche: some
• suchen nach: to look for
• die Prüfungsangst: the exam anxiety
• die Kommilitonin: the fellow student
• die Motivation: the motivation

Questions & Answers about Manche Kommilitoninnen haben starke Prüfungsangst und suchen deshalb nach mehr Motivation.

What is the nuance of Manche here compared with other words for “some” like einige or viele?

Manche means “some” in the sense of “a certain number (but not all),” and it’s slightly vague about how many.

• Manche Kommilitoninnen… = “Some (of the) fellow students…”
  → It suggests a subset, without indicating whether it’s few or many.

Comparison:

• einige Kommilitoninnen – also “some,” but often understood as “a few,” slightly leaning toward not very many.
• viele Kommilitoninnen – “many fellow students,” clearly a larger number.
• manche can sometimes imply a noticeable group, but still less specific than viele.

So in this sentence, manche keeps it neutral: not all, not necessarily many, just “some” of them.

What exactly does Kommilitoninnen mean, and what’s the singular form?

Kommilitoninnen means “(female) fellow students at university.”

• Singular masculine: der Kommilitone – a (male) fellow university student
• Singular feminine: die Kommilitonin – a (female) fellow university student
• Plural masculine/mixed: die Kommilitonen
• Plural feminine: die Kommilitoninnen

In the sentence, Kommilitoninnen is feminine plural, so it literally refers to female fellow students (at university, not at school).

Why is the word specifically feminine plural (Kommilitoninnen) and not a mixed or neutral form?

Formally, Kommilitoninnen refers only to women. The author likely has a group of female fellow students in mind, or is consciously using a feminine form.

Other options:

• Manche Kommilitonen – traditionally used as “some fellow students” (male or mixed group); grammatically masculine plural.
• Manche Kommilitoninnen und Kommilitonen – explicitly inclusive (female and male).
• In some styles, people may use the feminine plural generically, but that’s more marked and context‑dependent.

So the choice of Kommilitoninnen is either because the group is female, or because of a particular style preference (e.g. focusing on women).

Why does German say Prüfungsangst haben instead of using a verb like “to fear exams”?

German very often expresses states and feelings with haben + noun:

• Angst haben (vor …) – to be afraid (of …)
• Hunger haben – to be hungry
• Durst haben – to be thirsty
• Stress haben – to be stressed

So Prüfungsangst haben literally = “to have exam anxiety / fear of exams,” but idiomatically it’s “to be afraid of exams / to have test anxiety.”

You can use a verb:

• Sie fürchten Prüfungen. – “They fear exams.”
• Sie haben Angst vor Prüfungen. – more common, and very natural.

But Prüfungsangst haben is a fixed, very common expression in educational/psychological contexts.

How does starke agree grammatically with Prüfungsangst, and which case is this?

The phrase is starke Prüfungsangst:

• Angst is feminine: die Angst
• Prüfungsangst keeps that gender: die Prüfungsangst
• In haben starke Prüfungsangst, Prüfungsangst is a direct object → accusative singular (feminine).

Adjective ending:

• Feminine accusative singular with no article: starke
  (pattern: (k)eine starke Angst, starke Angst)

So the forms are:

• Nominative: starke Prüfungsangst ist ein Problem.
• Accusative: Sie haben starke Prüfungsangst.

In this sentence, it’s accusative feminine singular.

Can you break down the compound noun Prüfungsangst and explain its gender and possible plural?

Prüfungsangst = Prüfung + Angst

• die Prüfung – exam, test
• die Angst – fear

For German compounds, the last part determines the gender and plural. Here, that’s Angst:

• Gender: die Prüfungsangst (feminine, like die Angst)
• Plural: die Prüfungsängste (like die Ängste)

However, Prüfungsängste is relatively rare and sounds more technical or literary (“various types of exam-related fears”). In everyday use, people mostly speak of Prüfungsangst in the singular as a general condition.

Why is the verb haben used with Prüfungsangst instead of sein?

German regularly uses haben with nouns for physical and emotional states:

• Hunger haben, Durst haben, Kopfschmerzen haben
• Angst haben, Stress haben, Probleme haben

English often uses “to be”: “I am hungry / afraid / stressed,” but German prefers haben here.

You can form adjectives:

• ängstlich – anxious, fearful
• prüfungsängstlich – suffering from exam anxiety (quite marked/specialized)

But Sie haben starke Prüfungsangst is the standard, idiomatic way to say they suffer from fear of exams.

Why is it suchen nach and not just suchen or suchen für?

suchen behaves in two main ways:

1. suchen + Akkusativ – you are looking for a person or thing (often concrete):

   • Die Polizei sucht den Täter. – The police are looking for the culprit.
   • Ich suche meinen Schlüssel. – I’m looking for my key.

2. nach + Dativ suchen – you are searching for something (often more abstract, or in some set expressions):

   • nach einer Wohnung suchen – look for an apartment
   • nach einem Job suchen – look for a job
   • nach Motivation suchen – look for motivation

With something abstract like Motivation, nach + Dativ feels very natural and idiomatic.

suchen für is usually wrong for “look for X”. für tends to mean “for the benefit of / intended for”:

• ein Geschenk für dich suchen – look for a present for you (the present is for you)

Here, they’re searching for motivation itself, so nach mehr Motivation suchen is correct.

What is the function of deshalb in the sentence, and why is the word order suchen deshalb instead of deshalb suchen?

deshalb is a sentence adverb meaning “therefore,” “for that reason,” or “because of that.”

In the sentence:

• …haben starke Prüfungsangst und suchen deshalb nach mehr Motivation.

The conjunction und links two main clauses:

1. (Sie) haben starke Prüfungsangst
2. (Sie) suchen deshalb nach mehr Motivation

In a normal main clause, German uses verb-second word order:

• First position: usually subject or some other element
• Second position: finite verb

After a coordinating conjunction like und, you again start a new main clause and keep verb-second:

• und
  • suchen (verb in 2nd position of the clause) + deshalb (in the “middle field”)

Compare:

• Sie suchen deshalb nach mehr Motivation. (subject first)
• Deshalb suchen sie nach mehr Motivation. (adverb first → verb comes second)

In the original, because of und, we get: und suchen deshalb …, not und deshalb suchen … (that would push the verb out of the 2nd position after und).

Why is it nach mehr Motivation and not something like für mehr Motivation?

The choice of preposition depends on the verb:

• With suchen, when you mean “to look for X,” the natural pattern is nach + Dativ for many nouns:
  nach mehr Motivation suchen – search for more motivation.

• für + Akkusativ with Motivation usually means “in order to create/provide motivation,” not “look for motivation”:

  • Etwas tun für mehr Motivation – do something for more motivation
  • Maßnahmen für mehr Motivation – measures for more motivation

So:

• Sie suchen nach mehr Motivation. – They are looking for more motivation.
• Sie tun etwas für mehr Motivation. – They are doing something to achieve more motivation.

Here the verb is suchen, so nach is the appropriate preposition.

Is Motivation countable in German, and can you say eine Motivation or Motivationen?

Motivation in German is mostly uncountable, especially in everyday language, similar to English:

• viel Motivation – a lot of motivation
• keine Motivation – no motivation
• mehr Motivation – more motivation

You can technically say:

• eine Motivation, zwei Motivationen

but that’s unusual and tends to sound very technical or specific, as in psychology/philosophy:

• die Motivationen einer Person analysieren – analyze the (individual) motivations of a person

In normal speech, people treat Motivation like a mass noun and talk about mehr / wenig / keine Motivation, not about Motivationen.

Are there more colloquial or alternative ways to phrase this sentence in German?

Yes, several rephrasings are possible, depending on style and formality. For example:

• Manche Kommilitonen haben große Angst vor Prüfungen und wünschen sich mehr Motivation.
  (“Some fellow students are very afraid of exams and wish they had more motivation.”)

• Manche meiner Mitstudierenden haben starke Prüfungsangst und würden gern motivierter sein.
  (More inclusive Mitstudierende, and a more spoken phrasing with motivierter sein.)

• Einige Kommilitoninnen leiden unter starker Prüfungsangst und versuchen, mehr Motivation zu finden.
  (Using einige and leiden unter to stress suffering.)

All of these are grammatical; each slightly shifts nuance (more/less formal, more emotional, more descriptive), but the core meaning remains close to the original.