Problem with usage of conjunction "zu"

Question

I keep trying to understand the word zu and I'm not sure it completely makes sense to me.

For example, I do not understand the difference between:

Auto (ver)kaufen

Auto zu (ver)kaufen

If I would translate an advertisment and would like to say:

Cars for sale in Berlin.

Would I need to use the zu form?

Thank you!

@HubertSchölnast I severely doubt "zu" is a particle here. It rather is a conjunction that marks the infinitive here. http://www.canoo.net/services/OnlineGrammar/Wort/Konjunktion/Gebrauch/Infinitiv.html — tofro, Jun 14 '17 at 11:29
@tofro: I was thinking of this too, but no. In the linked examples zu is part of a subordinate conjunction, that is used to build a subordinate clause. The complete conjunction is "um zu", "(an)statt zu", "ohne zu" and similar. But in »Das Auto ist zu verkaufen« we just have one main clause, no sub clause, and zu is not part of a conjunction, but part of the predicate. Read my answer for details: https://german.stackexchange.com/a/37213/1487 — Hubert Schölnast, Jun 14 '17 at 11:38
@HubertSchölnast See Duden http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/zu_Konjunktion "Er ist heute nicht zu sprechen" example, same constructs, no subclause, and marked as conjunction. Classifying a word as a particle is a way of "if all else fails"-last resort IMHO. Here, "all else" doesn't fail. — tofro, Jun 14 '17 at 11:45
@tofro: You are right. I really came to particle because of everything else fails which was wrong, as I learned now. I corrected my mistake. I just can't correct my first comment (its older than 5 minutes). — Hubert Schölnast, Jun 14 '17 at 11:53

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 14 '17 at 10:15

1

Auto verkaufen: selling a car.

Auto zu verkaufen : car for sale (advertisement and the car doesn't belong to a person yet)

edited Jun 14 '17 at 10:15

Dosendusche

78
5

answered Jun 14 '17 at 09:31

giubueno

19
2

1

Why "selling"? I'd translate this to: "to sell a car" – alk Jun 17 '17 at 17:47

Hubert Schölnast · Answer 2 · 2017-06-14T11:31:05.373

It becomes clearer, if you look at complete sentences, not at just a few words:

Ich werde das Auto verkaufen.

Das Auto ist zu verkaufen.

In English:

I will sell the car.

The car is for sale.

#1

In #1 we have a normal statement that describes an action that will happen in the future. You can transform this sentence into present tense, which makes the infinite form to be replaced by a finite, i.e. declined form:

Ich verkaufe das Auto.
I sell the car.

In German future tense is build by a form of the auxiliary verb werden, that has to be declined according to the subject (which is ich, i.e. 1^st person singular) plus the main verb in its undeclined infinitive form. The finite (i.e. declined) part (»werde«) has to stand on position 2 of the sentence, while all infinite (i.e. not declined) parts have to stand at the end of the sentence.

#2

In #2 we have a sentence in present tense, that doesn't describe an action. It describes a state. This sentence has no object. It just has a subject (das Auto) and a predicate (ist zu verkaufen). The predicate is of the form

(form of haben or sein) + zu + (infinitive of the main verb)

Examples for this construction are:

Ich habe zu tun. = I am busy. (verbatim: I have to do)
Das ist zu schaffen. = We can do/make it. (verbatim: This is to make/create/manage)

The verbatim translation for

Das Auto ist zu verkaufen.

is

The car is to sell.

But you don't use this construction in English, so you say instead »The car is for sale«.

This also works in ellipsis (incomplete sentences). In both languages you omit the article of the subject (the, das) and the auxiliary verb (is, ist). I put this words into subscript:

_The Car _is for sale in Berlin.

_Das Auto _ist in Berlin zu verkaufen.

Note the word order! The infinite parts of the predicate come direct after the finite part in English, but at the end of the sentence in German.

Even in English you could have a sign saying something like "Cars to sell", just not "car to sell". — sgf, Jun 14 '17 at 23:50

Problem with usage of conjunction "zu"

2 Answers2

#1

#2