Du scheinst den Lauch lieber fein hacken zu wollen, weil dir große Stücke nicht schmecken.

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Breakdown of Du scheinst den Lauch lieber fein hacken zu wollen, weil dir große Stücke nicht schmecken.

• nicht: not
• groß: big
• weil: because

Questions & Answers about Du scheinst den Lauch lieber fein hacken zu wollen, weil dir große Stücke nicht schmecken.

Why is the sentence built with scheinst ... hacken zu wollen?

This is a very common German pattern.

• scheinen + zu + infinitive = to seem to do something
• wollen = to want to
• hacken = to chop

So:

• Du scheinst ... zu wollen = You seem to want ...
• Du scheinst den Lauch fein hacken zu wollen = You seem to want to chop the leek finely

German often puts the conjugated verb early and leaves the infinitives until the end.

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Why is it hacken zu wollen and not zu hacken wollen?

Because when scheinen is followed by another infinitive that includes a modal verb like wollen, können, müssen, and so on, standard German usually puts zu before the modal verb.

So you get:

• hacken zu wollen = to want to chop
• gehen zu können = to be able to go
• bleiben zu müssen = to have to stay

For an English speaker, it may feel backwards, but this is the normal German pattern with these infinitive clusters.

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Why is it den Lauch?