Meanings
Read more
We'll explore how "eben" and "gerade" are used in context of time and as these weird particles that seem to appear anywhere. Featuring: a really scary cat.
Vocab:
eben, gerade, eben gerade, gerade eben

We'll explore how "eben" and "gerade" are used in context of time and as these weird particles that seem to appear anywhere. Featuring: a really scary cat.
Vocab:
eben, gerade, eben gerade, gerade eben
So, now that I am living in Germany I am trying to buy a van. In reference to a posted “for sale” ad, I wrote some rando German dude:
“Hallo! Ist dieser Van noch verfügbar?”
to which he replied:
“Nein, gerade eben verkauft….”
I looked up the translation and it means:
“nope, only just sold….”
I would’ve thought that would be written as:
“Nein, nur jetzt verkauft….”
Then I looked up “eben” on stack exchange and went down a “holy crap, what is this word!?” rabbit hole.
hmmm, two steps forward, one step back (or maybe one step forward, two steps back)
Actually, “eben gerade”, “gerade eben” and just “eben” or “gerade” all mean the same in that context… just.
The only in the translation “only just sold” is not a real “only”, it just tries to emphasize how “just” it was (like 10 minutes ago) and tries to capture the “two” words in German, but we could also translate it as “Sold just now”.
Check out my article about “eben” and “gerade”, I talk about just that in detail:
https://yourdailygerman.com/eben-gerade-meaning/
This is part two.
cool thanks! for some reason, there was no link to that article (part one or two) when I searched for eben or gerade in the vocab last night. this morning there is a link. love it. cheers and thanks.
Yeah, I forgot to connect this entry with the article, but I did it after you comment :).
So yeah… thanks for helping me clean up here :)