allein

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German

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Alternative forms

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  • alleine (chiefly colloquial, only occasionally in formal writing)

Etymology

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From Middle High German al-ein. Cognate with Middle English al-one, English alone, Dutch alleen, Low German alleene (Münsterländisch), alläine (Sauerländisch).[1]

Pronunciation

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  • (Standard German)
  • (Swabian)
  • Audio (Austria):(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪ̯n

Adjective

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allein (indeclinable, predicative only)

  1. (only predicative) alone
    Er ist ganz allein.
    He is all alone.

Adverb

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allein

  1. alone
    Er schrieb das Buch allein.
    He wrote the book alone.
    Allein im Jahr 2012 starben 500 Menschen an der Krankheit.
    In 2012 alone, 500 people died from the illness.
  2. (formal, literary) only
    Allein ein Wunder kann uns noch helfen.
    Only a miracle can help us now.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Friedrich Kluge (1883) “allein”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891

Further reading

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  • allein” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache