Somehow, I must have missed out on learning phrases of changes in quantity in German, so I need a cheat sheet.
| Trend | Quantity | |
|---|---|---|
| Low | High | |
| Decreasing | nur noch “only…left” |
immer noch “still” |
| Increasing | erst “so far” |
schon “already” |
| Stable/Unknown | nur “only” |
 |
(Native German speakers: Please feel free to offer corrections.)
Here’s a sentence pattern for demonstration.
| I | have | only | 100 | left | = | Ich habe | nur noch | 100 | : ˦˨ | I used to have more, but I’m running low. | |
| I | still | have | 100 | = | Ich habe | immer noch | 100 | : ˦˧ | I used to have more, but I’m not running low yet. | ||
| I | have | 100 | so far | = | Ich habe | erst | 100 | : ˩˨ | It’s not much, but it’s more than I had before. | ||
| I | have | 100 | already | = | Ich habe | schon | 100 | : ˩˧ | It’s quite a bit, and it’s more than I had before. | ||
| I | have | only | 100 | = | Ich habe | nur | 100 | : Ë© | It’s not much, but that’s typical. | ||
| I | have | 100 | = | Ich habe | 100 | : | It is what it is. |
It’s interesting to me that the last box is empty. Neither English nor German seems to have a clear phrase pattern to indicate “I have a lot, and that’s typical.”
Learning another language gives you a chance to reflect upon your own. When laid out this way, it does seem weird that the English patterns scatter the modifier words into three different positions in the sentence.
Note: These adverbs also have meanings unrelated to quantity. I’m focusing on the quantity-related meanings.
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