Apologizing for a plan change | Learn German in English

Sentence explanations

1. Es tut mir leid, ich muss unseren Plan ändern.

   I'm sorry, I need to change our plan.

   Es tut mir leid

   I’m sorry

   ich muss

   I need to / I have to

   unseren

   our

   Plan

   plan

   ändern

   change

   More detail

   Es tut mir leid is the standard German expression for apologizing: “I’m sorry.” It is built from the separable verb leidtun (“to be sorry”): in the present tense, tun becomes tut with es, while leid remains separate. The dative form mir means “to me”; the whole expression, rather than each word literally, gives the apology. Example: Das tut mir leid. — “I’m sorry about that.” ich muss expresses necessity or strong need here: “I need to” or “I have to.” muss is the first-person singular present form of müssen; the infinitive is müssen. With a modal verb such as müssen, the other verb normally stays in the infinitive and goes to the end of the clause. Example: Ich muss arbeiten. — “I have to work.” unseren is the possessive determiner meaning “our” in this sentence. Its form is based on unser-, and the ending -en appears because it modifies the masculine accusative noun Plan: unseren Plan. Possessive determiners take endings that reflect the noun phrase’s grammatical case and gender, not the number of owners. Example: Wir ändern unseren Termin. — “We are changing our appointment.” Plan means “plan.” It is the masculine noun der Plan; its plural is Pläne. Here it is the direct object of ändern, so it is accusative: unseren Plan, corresponding to den Plan with the definite article. Example: Der Plan ist einfach. — “The plan is simple.” ändern means “to change” or “to alter.” It is the infinitive used after the modal muss; in a clause without that modal, its first-person singular present form is ich ändere. Example: Ich ändere den Plan. — “I am changing the plan.” Together, Es tut mir leid gives the apology, ich muss ... ändern says that the speaker needs to make a change, and unseren Plan identifies what will be changed. The complete utterance therefore means: “I’m sorry, I need to change our plan.”

2. Gut, dass du mir Bescheid gesagt hast, bevor ich losgegangen bin.

   I'm glad you told me before I left.

   Gut, dass

   Good that; I’m glad that

   Bescheid gesagt

   told someone; let someone know

   bevor

   before

   losgegangen

   left; set off

   More detail

   Gut, dass introduces a positive evaluation of the following fact. In this sentence, the natural English result is “I’m glad that …”, rather than a literal instruction to be good. The same pattern is reusable: Schön, dass du da bist. — “I’m glad you’re here.” Bescheid gesagt belongs to the useful German construction jemandem Bescheid sagen, meaning “to let someone know” or “to tell someone.” mir is the dative form meaning “to me,” so du mir Bescheid gesagt hast means “you let me know.” The form gesagt is the past participle of sagen (“to say/tell”); the perfect construction is completed by hast, which appears at the end of this subordinate clause. Example: Sie hat mir Bescheid gesagt. — “She let me know.” bevor means “before” and introduces a subordinate clause that gives the earlier time boundary. German places the finite verb at the end of this clause, as in bevor ich losgegangen bin. losgegangen is the past participle of losgehen, “to leave” or “to set off.” Its base verb is losgehen, not gehen alone; the prefix los- adds the sense of starting off. Because losgehen describes movement or setting off, its perfect auxiliary is sein: ich bin losgegangen — “I left” or “I set off.” The form losgegangen itself does not show the subject; ich identifies the subject here. Together, du mir Bescheid gesagt hast means “you told me,” and bevor ich losgegangen bin means “before I left.” The complete sentence therefore means: “I’m glad you told me before I left.”

3. Etwas Unerwartetes ist passiert.

   Something unexpected came up.

   Etwas

   something

   Unerwartetes

   something unexpected

   passiert

   happened; occurred

   More detail

   Etwas means “something” and is an indefinite pronoun: it refers to an unspecified thing or event. It does not state how many separate things there are. Compare nichts (“nothing”) when the meaning is zero. Unerwartetes means “something unexpected” here. It is the adjective unerwartet (“unexpected”) used as a noun-like form, with the adjective ending -es. This lets German express an unspecified unexpected thing or event without naming a noun. The ending belongs to unerwartet, not to Etwas. For example: Etwas Neues ist passiert. — “Something new happened.” passiert is the form used here for “happened” or “occurred.” It is the past participle of passieren; the same spelling can also be the third-person singular present form (“happens”), so the neighboring ist is important: ist passiert is the perfect construction meaning “has happened” or, in this context, natural English “happened.” German forms this perfect with sein plus the past participle for this verb. Together, Etwas Unerwartetes is the subject, and ist passiert says that this unexpected thing occurred. The complete meaning is “Something unexpected came up.”

4. Das ist in Ordnung. Wir können einen anderen Tag wählen.

   That's all right. We can choose another day.

   Das ist in Ordnung

   That's all right.

   Wir können

   we can

   anderen

   another

   Tag

   day

   wählen

   choose

   More detail

   Das ist in Ordnung is a reusable way to say that something is acceptable or all right. Here Das is the subject of ist; it does not need to identify a specific noun. ist is the present-tense form of sein for er/sie/es and Das. The fixed phrase in Ordnung means “all right” or “acceptable” in this use. Wir können means “we can” or “we are able to.” können is the modal verb können; its present forms include ich kann, du kannst, er/sie/es kann, wir können, and sie/Sie können. With a modal verb, German normally puts the other verb in the infinitive at the end of the clause. anderen means “another” here. Its base adjective is ander- (“other/another”), and the -en ending is carried by the adjective itself. In einen anderen Tag, Tag is masculine singular and is the accusative object, so the adjective after the masculine indefinite article einen has the ending -en. The form changes with the noun phrase’s grammatical case and gender; for example, ein anderer Tag means “another day” when the phrase is nominative. Tag means “day.” Its base form is Tag; its plural is Tage. In this utterance it is masculine singular and appears as the accusative object of wählen. wählen means “to choose” or “to select.” It is the infinitive after the modal können. For example, Wir können einen anderen Termin wählen. means “We can choose another appointment time.” Together, Wir können einen anderen Tag wählen has the pattern subject + modal verb + object + infinitive: “We can choose another day.” The first sentence, Das ist in Ordnung, expresses acceptance, and the second states the available action without asserting that a particular day has already been selected.

5. Würde es dir später in dieser Woche passen?

   Would later this week work for you?

   Würde

   would

   es

   it

   dir

   for you

   später

   later

   dieser

   this

   Woche

   week

   passen

   work; suit

   More detail

   Würde is the Konjunktiv II form of werden used here to make a tentative, polite question: “would …”. It is not the main action of the sentence; the lexical verb appears at the end. Compare Würde das passen? — “Would that work?” es is the sentence subject in this use of passen. It is an impersonal “it” referring to whether the proposed time is suitable, not necessarily to a particular object. German commonly uses the pattern etwas passt jemandem, literally “something suits someone.” dir is the informal second-person singular dative pronoun, “to/for you.” The dative marks the person for whom something is suitable. The corresponding formal or plural form is Ihnen; mir means “to/for me,” as in the context sentence Später in dieser Woche passt es mir gut. später means “later” in this sentence and is the comparative form related to spät (“late”): spät → später → am spätesten. Here it places the possible time later than some understood reference time, without specifying an exact hour. dieser means “this” and belongs to Woche. In in dieser Woche, the preposition in expresses a time period, and the feminine singular noun phrase is in the dative: diese Woche changes to in dieser Woche. The form dieser here is therefore determined by the combination of feminine singular Woche and dative case, not by the word alone. Woche is the feminine noun “week.” Its plural is Wochen. Example: Nächste Woche passt mir besser. — “Next week works better for me.” passen is the infinitive “to suit” or “to work” when a time is suitable for someone. Its subject is the thing or time that suits someone, while that person is in the dative: Der Termin passt mir. — “The appointment works for me.” In the fixed question, passen remains at the end because würde is the finite verb in a yes/no question and the infinitive is placed at the end. Together, Würde ... passen? asks politely whether a proposed option would be suitable. später in dieser Woche supplies the time, and dir identifies the person whose availability matters. Thus the whole utterance means: “Would later this week work for you?” It is a reusable way to ask whether a suggested time suits someone.

6. Später in dieser Woche passt es mir gut.

   Later this week is fine for me.

   Später

   later

   dieser

   this

   Woche

   week

   passt

   works / suits

   es

   it

   mir

   for me

   gut

   well / fine

   More detail

   Später means “later” here. It is the comparative form of spät (“late”): spät → später. As a time adverb, it does not change for person or number. Example: Ich komme später. — “I’ll come later.” dieser and Woche form in dieser Woche, “this week.” Woche is a feminine noun. In this time expression, in takes the dative, so the feminine form is dieser; the corresponding basic form is diese Woche in contexts using the nominative or accusative. The noun itself remains Woche. Example: Diese Woche ist voll. — “This week is busy.” passt is the third-person singular present form of passen, “to fit” or, in this pattern, “to suit/work.” The base form is passen; its subject is the singular es, so the verb has the form passt. The pattern etwas passt jemandem means that something suits or works for someone, with that person in the dative. Example: Der Termin passt mir. — “The appointment works for me.” es is the singular subject form used in this impersonal expression. Here, es passt ... means “it works/suits ...”; it does not need to name a separate object. The time phrase identifies what works in the overall sentence, while the following dative identifies for whom it works. Example: Passt es dir? — “Does it work for you?” mir is the first-person singular dative form of ich, meaning “to/for me.” It marks the person whose schedule or preferences the time suits. Compare dir, the second-person singular dative form, in Passt es dir? — “Does it work for you?” gut means “well” or “fine” here. It describes how well the time suits the speaker in the expression jemandem gut passen, “to suit someone well.” Although gut can also be an adjective meaning “good,” it has no adjective ending here because it is used adverbially with passt. Together, Später in dieser Woche gives the time: “later this week.” The construction es passt mir gut says that this time works well for the speaker: es supplies the subject of the expression, mir identifies the person it suits, and gut adds the positive evaluation. The complete meaning is “Later this week is fine for me.”

7. Ich kann dir den neuen Plan schicken.

   I can send you the new plan.

   Ich kann

   I can

   dir

   to you

   neuen

   new

   Plan

   plan

   schicken

   send

   More detail

   Ich kann means “I can” here. kann is the first-person singular present form of können (“to be able to; can”). With a modal verb such as können, the other verb normally appears as an infinitive at the end: Ich kann warten. — “I can wait.” dir means “to you” and is the informal singular second-person dative pronoun. The corresponding accusative form is dich: Ich sehe dich. — “I see you.” The dative form dir is used here for the recipient of the sending. neuen is the inflected form of the adjective neu (“new”). It describes Plan and has the ending -en because den Plan is masculine accusative after the definite article den. Compare: der neue Plan — “the new plan” (nominative) and den neuen Plan — “the new plan” (accusative). Plan means “plan.” Its base form is the masculine noun der Plan; after den, it appears as den Plan in the accusative. A useful example is Ich ändere den Plan. — “I am changing the plan.” schicken means “to send.” This is the infinitive used with kann; the modal carries the person marking, while schicken remains in the infinitive. Without the modal, a present-tense first-person sentence would use Ich schicke den Plan. — “I am sending the plan.” Together, Ich kann + dir + den neuen Plan + schicken forms: “I can send you the new plan.” The recipient is expressed with the dative dir, the thing being sent is the masculine accusative phrase den neuen Plan, and schicken stands at the end as the infinitive required by kann.

8. Das hilft mir, meinen Zeitplan anzupassen.

   That helps me adjust my schedule.

   Das

   That

   hilft

   helps

   mir

   me

   meinen

   my

   Zeitplan

   schedule

   anzupassen

   adjust

   More detail

   Das is the demonstrative pronoun used as the subject here: “that.” Its specific referent is understood from the situation; the sentence itself does not name it. In German, a demonstrative can stand alone as a pronoun, as in Das ist gut. — “That is good.” hilft comes from helfen (“to help”). It is the present-tense form for third-person singular: helfen → er/sie/es hilft. helfen takes a dative complement for the person helped, rather than an accusative one. mir is the first-person singular dative form of ich (“I”): ich → mir. Here it marks the person who is helped. The combination Das hilft mir means “That helps me.” meinen is the possessive determiner meaning “my” in this phrase. It has the form used with a masculine singular accusative noun: mein Zeitplan is nominative, while meinen Zeitplan is accusative. The accusative is used because the schedule is the object being adjusted. For example, Ich ändere meinen Plan. means “I change my plan.” Zeitplan is a masculine noun meaning “schedule” or “timetable”: der Zeitplan. It is a compound made from Zeit (“time”) and Plan (“plan”), but it functions as one noun, with its gender determined by the final element, Plan. anzupassen comes from the separable verb anpassen, meaning “to adjust” or “to adapt.” With zu in an infinitive construction, its parts appear together as anzupassen. The construction jemandem helfen, etwas anzupassen means “to help someone adjust something”; jemandem is dative and etwas is the object of anzupassen. For example, Sie hilft mir, den Text anzupassen. means “She helps me adjust the text.” Together, Das hilft mir gives “That helps me,” and meinen Zeitplan anzupassen gives “to adjust my schedule.” The complete utterance is therefore “That helps me adjust my schedule.”