Talk:Quäntchen
English translation[edit]
As I'm unfamiliar with contributing to Wiktionary I'm unsure how to submit this information in the article, but here's what I know.
Derivation: a Quentchen is a historic measurement of weight, around 4 grammes today. Originally a fifth (from medieval Latin quentinus = fifth) of a "Lot" it became over time to be a quarter of a Lot. However modern German speakers often believe it to be a diminutive form of Quantum (a "quantum-let", a small/miniscule amount).
The sentence "Es fehlte mir das nötige Quäntchen Glück" is a very common idiom in modern German. It can be crudely translated as "I was missing the little bit of luck needed" but is closer in meaning to the idiomatic phrase "luck was not on my side", or "I just needed a tiny bit more luck". It's a phrase that translators find several different English translations for, dependent on context and register. Regards 2A01:6BC0:2:0:0:0:0:3DA 14:06, 23 September 2020 (UTC)