Breakdown of In Besprechungen nimmt unsere Chefin viel Rücksicht auf leise Kolleginnen und Kollegen.
Questions & Answers about In Besprechungen nimmt unsere Chefin viel Rücksicht auf leise Kolleginnen und Kollegen.
Using In Besprechungen without an article makes the meaning general: in meetings (in general / usually in meetings).
If you said In den Besprechungen, it would sound like you are talking about some specific, known meetings:
- In Besprechungen – in meetings (as a general habit)
- In den Besprechungen – in the meetings (that we know which ones)
In this sentence the idea is a general behaviour of the boss, so no article is used.
Besprechungen is in the dative plural.
The preposition in can take either accusative or dative:
- in
- accusative → direction / movement (into)
- in
- dative → location / time (in, inside, during)
Here we mean during meetings / in meetings, so it is a static situation/time, not movement. Therefore:
- in Besprechungen = in
- dative plural
Yes, Bei Besprechungen is also possible and very natural.
The nuance:
- In Besprechungen – literally in meetings, with a slightly stronger feeling of during the time of the meetings / within that situation.
- Bei Besprechungen – literally at meetings or on the occasion of meetings, focusing a bit more on the event.
In everyday usage, both can mean almost the same here: when we have meetings, our boss is very considerate…
Literally, Rücksicht nehmen (auf …) is to take consideration (of …).
Idiomatic meaning: to be considerate, to take someone’s needs into account, to be mindful of someone.
So unsere Chefin nimmt viel Rücksicht auf … ≈ our boss is very considerate of … / really takes … into account.
Rücksicht is normally used as an uncountable noun in the singular when it means consideration.
- viel Rücksicht – a lot of consideration
- viele Rücksichten – grammatically possible, but rare and more abstract (different kinds of considerations)
In normal everyday language, you say viel Rücksicht nehmen (auf …) for to be very considerate (of …).
With this expression, the fixed pattern is:
- Rücksicht auf + accusative = consideration for …
So:
- Rücksicht auf leise Kolleginnen und Kollegen
– auf demands the accusative here.
Alternative structures exist, like Rücksicht gegenüber jemandem, but with nehmen the most common form is Rücksicht auf + Akkusativ nehmen.
Because leise here is an adjective with strong declension in the accusative plural with no article:
- Preposition auf → accusative
- Plural noun, no article before it → strong endings
- Strong accusative plural ending is -e
So:
- auf leise Kolleginnen und Kollegen (correct)
- auf leisen … would be wrong here; -en would be used with a definite article:
auf die leisen Kolleginnen und Kollegen.
German often uses double forms to be explicitly inclusive:
- Kolleginnen – female colleagues (plural of Kollegin)
- Kollegen – male colleagues (plural of Kollege, but also often used as the generic masculine)
By saying Kolleginnen und Kollegen, the sentence explicitly mentions both women and men. Using only Kollegen could be understood generically (all colleagues), but many speakers now prefer the explicit double form for gender inclusivity.
Chefin is the feminine form of Chef (boss).
- der Chef – male boss
- die Chefin – female boss
The possessive unser has to agree with the noun’s gender, number, and case:
- Feminine nominative singular: unsere Chefin
So:
- unser Chef (masculine)
- unsere Chefin (feminine)
German has the verb-second rule in main clauses: one element in the first position, then the conjugated verb.
Both sentences are correct:
- Unsere Chefin nimmt in Besprechungen viel Rücksicht …
(subject in first position, neutral word order) - In Besprechungen nimmt unsere Chefin viel Rücksicht …
(prepositional phrase in first position, verb still second, subject comes after the verb)
Putting In Besprechungen first emphasizes when/where this happens: In meetings, our boss…
sehr is used to intensify adjectives and adverbs, not nouns:
- sehr leise, sehr freundlich, sehr gern
viel is used to quantify nouns, especially uncountable ones:
- viel Wasser, viel Arbeit, viel Rücksicht
So you say:
- viel Rücksicht (a lot of consideration)
- but sehr rücksichtsvoll (very considerate) when using the adjective.
Yes, Unsere Chefin ist sehr rücksichtsvoll is correct and very natural.
Nuance:
Unsere Chefin ist sehr rücksichtsvoll.
– describes her character / general attitude (she is a considerate person).Unsere Chefin nimmt in Besprechungen viel Rücksicht auf …
– focuses on her specific behaviour in that situation (in meetings, she actively takes others into account).
They are close in meaning but the original sentence is a bit more concrete and situational.
leise literally means quiet / low in volume.
In this context, leise Kolleginnen und Kollegen are colleagues who:
- speak softly,
- don’t speak up much in meetings,
- maybe do not interrupt or push themselves forward.
It does not directly mean shy (schüchtern) or calm (ruhig), although quiet people in meetings are often also shy or reserved. The main idea is that they don’t make a lot of noise or dominate the discussion.