Viele kommen zu spät.

Many come too late.

Breakdown of Viele kommen zu spät.

• kommen: to come
• spät: late
• zu: too
• viele: many (people)

Questions & Answers about Viele kommen zu spät.

What exactly does Viele refer to here? Many what?

In Viele kommen zu spät, Viele is understood as “many people”.

German often leaves out Leute (people) or another obvious noun if the context is clear. So you can imagine the full meaning as:

• Viele (Menschen/Leute/Schüler/etc.) kommen zu spät.
  = Many (people/pupils/etc.) are arriving too late.

The specific group (students, employees, guests) would normally be clear from the situation.

Why is Viele capitalized? Is it a noun?

Here, Viele is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence.

Grammatically, it’s not a noun but an indefinite pronoun / determiner meaning “many”.

If it were in the middle of a sentence, you’d write:

• Ich habe viele gesehen. – I have seen many.
• Viele kommen zu spät. – Many (people) come too late.

So: capital letter at the start of the sentence, not because it’s a noun.

What is the difference between viele and viel?

Very roughly:

• viele = many (countable things)

  • viele Leute – many people
  • viele Bücher – many books

• viel = much / a lot (uncountable or “mass” things)

  • viel Zeit – much time / a lot of time
  • viel Wasser – much water / a lot of water

In Viele kommen zu spät, it’s the plural form viele used on its own, meaning “many (of them / many people)”.

If there is no noun like Leute, why is the verb plural (kommen) and not singular (kommt)?

Because Viele is grammatically plural and is the subject of the verb.

• Viele kommen zu spät. – Viele = plural subject → kommen (3rd person plural)
• Einer kommt zu spät. – Einer = singular subject → kommt (3rd person singular)

Even though the noun people is only implied, grammatically the sentence works exactly like:

• Viele Leute kommen zu spät.

Can I say Viele Leute kommen zu spät instead?

Yes, absolutely. Both are correct:

• Viele kommen zu spät. – Many (people) come too late.
• Viele Leute kommen zu spät. – Many people come too late.

The version without Leute is a bit shorter and very natural when the group is obvious. Adding Leute, Schüler, Mitarbeiter, etc., makes the group explicit:

• Viele Schüler kommen zu spät. – Many students come too late.

What is the difference between zu spät and spät?

• spät = late

  • Sie kommen spät. – They are coming late. (neutral: just not early / not on time)

• zu spät = too late

  • Sie kommen zu spät. – They are coming too late. (there is a negative consequence; the “deadline” has passed)

In Viele kommen zu spät, it implies that they miss something important: the start of class, the meeting, the train, etc.

Is zu spät kommen like saying “to be late” in English? Can I say Viele sind zu spät?

Yes, zu spät kommen is the standard way to say “to be late” (in the sense of arriving late):

• Er kommt immer zu spät. – He is always late (in coming).

Viele sind zu spät is normally incomplete and sounds wrong by itself. You’d either say:

• Viele kommen zu spät. – Many (people) are late in arriving.
• Viele sind zu spät gekommen. – Many (people) have arrived too late. (past tense, completed action)

zu spät almost always goes together with a verb such as kommen, ankommen, erscheinen, etc.

Can I change the word order, like Es kommen viele zu spät?

Yes. Both are correct, with a slightly different emphasis:

• Viele kommen zu spät. – Neutral, common word order. Focus on Viele (“many”).
• Es kommen viele zu spät. – Starts with a dummy es, often used in German for stylistic reasons or to focus more on viele at the end.

Both mean essentially the same in everyday speech.

Is it possible to say Viele kommen spät zu or Viele zu spät kommen?

No, those word orders are not correct in this simple main clause:

• zu spät is a fixed adverbial phrase and normally stays together:
  • ✅ Viele kommen zu spät.
  • ❌ Viele kommen spät zu.
  • ❌ Viele zu spät kommen. (unless it’s part of a different structure, e.g. in a subordinate clause or infinitive phrase)

In a subordinate clause or infinitive construction, you could see:

• …, weil viele zu spät kommen. – because many come too late.
• …, ohne zu spät zu kommen. – without coming too late.

But in a simple main clause like yours, the correct order is kommen zu spät.

Can viele also refer to things, or only to people?

viele can refer to any countable plural noun, not just people:

• Viele Bücher sind teuer. – Many books are expensive.
• Viele Autos sind heute elektrisch. – Many cars are electric nowadays.
• Viele kommen zu spät. – Many (people) come too late.

If the context is about things, Viele will be understood as “many of them (things)”.

How would I say “Many have come too late” or “Many often come too late”?

For “Many have come too late” (completed past action):

• Viele sind zu spät gekommen.

Here German uses sein as the auxiliary with kommen in the perfect tense.

For “Many often come too late” (habit):

• Viele kommen oft zu spät.

The adverb oft usually sits in the “middle field”, before the main verb’s adverbial zu spät.