"At least you are not alone."
Translation:Wenigstens bist du nicht allein.
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2962
A great article, to summarize this read:
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"wenigstens" is when you "whine" with pessimistic/optimistic or hopeful statements.
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"mindestens" is when you state that it could be more.
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"zu mindest" is when you say, at least form my point of view, at least in my opinion, ...from what I know.
45
I've reported it. Mostly because in a several other cases (At least take my phone number. At least you don't look blue) Duolingo provides "mindestens" and "wenigstens" as correct.
I can add, 'wenigstens' comes from 'wenig'.
My theory is:
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When you have less XYZ and we try to lead your view upwards, then we tend to use 'wenigstens'.
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When someone is used to have more XYZ and now he/she has less of it, we tend to use zumindestens or mindestens. Also with the aim to lead your view upwards.
1204
"Am" means "at the" (being a contraction of "an dem". Since "dem/the" is a determiner, it should be followed by an object, a noun (z.B., "am Laden" ==> "at the store"). It can be immediately followed by an adjective or an adverb/adjective combination, but then those modifiers need to be followed by a noun (z.B., "am neuen Garten" ==> "at the new garden").
So, since wenigstens is an adverb, it doesn't use a determiner. To make things just a bit more complex: the translation to English is "at least", a prepositional phrase.
"Am" is also used for forming superlative in German. As written in Wikipedia
"The superlative is formed with the preposition am and the ending -en, e.g. am schönsten "most beautifully". Only a limited number of adverbs have a special elative form ending in -stens, e.g. schnellstens ('as fast as possible'), bestens ('very well')". "
So "wenigstens" is one of those special adverbs. But as far as I understand "am wenigsten", is also a valid form, (listed in e.g. Wiktionary).
So in retrospect I think my mistake was adding an s in the end. I.e. a valid alternative answer should be: "am wenigsten bist du nicht allein". Can someone confirm?
1312
I still have not fully understood the difference between zumindest, wenigstens, and mindestens. It is still not crystal clear to me even after reading the site which is suggested by Bryan_Seelig (Thanks to him). It still seems I can use any of those in many cases with some slight differences in meaning.
1204
Sounds to me like you've got a pretty good handle on it. It's now just a matter of memorization and practice. (Genauso alles andere Deutsch.)
The 'nicht' is not always in the last position of a sentence. Indeed it is a result of determinded random if it is there. http://faculty.vassar.edu/vonderem/deutsch_heute/Kapitel02/Grammatik/nicht1.html
Wenigstens bist du nicht alleine.
1204
Because what you wrote means "at least you are not lonely," which is not the same thing as "being alone".
I can be alone and not be lonely. I can also be amongst many people and still be lonely. (Sniff. No one understands me. Woe is me!)
1204
Well, there are some lead-ins/phrases that don't count (can't think of an example the moment) so that the noun/subject can still precede the verb. I don't know if wenigstens is one of those. I'm assuming not.
Are there any sort of guidelines on where to put an adverb? "Du bist wenigstens nicht allein" was accepted as of June 2021. I've also seen sentences where the adverb is at the end of the sentence. Does this placement change just tone? For example, would an adverb be more emphasized the closer it is to the beginning of a sentence?