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"The large kids' room is only there for toys."

Das große Kinderzimmer ist nur für Spielzeuge da.

By what grammar rule can we justify "da"'s position here in the sentence? Generall speaking how do we know where to keep 'da'?

I identified 'da' as being used as an adverb from this post

tryst with freedom
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1 Answers1

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The "da" here comes from the verb "dasein" being split. There are different ways to place the split off prefix (perhaps with slight nuances in possible interpretation):

Das große Kinderzimmer ist nur für Spielzeuge da.

preferred over

Das große Kinderzimmer ist nur da für Spielzeuge.

but please avoid

Das große Kinderzimmer ist da nur für Spielzeuge.

Compare with other separable verbs, e.g. "weglaufen"

Ich laufe manchmal vor bissigen Hunden weg.

Ich laufe manchmal weg vor bissigne Hunden.

but please avoid

Ich laufe weg manchmal vor bissigen Hunden.

Hagen von Eitzen
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  • Could you explain the preference? How would the preference mean different than the original? – tryst with freedom Jan 23 '22 at 21:25
  • When I looked at the sentence I start to think that da here is an adverb but when you said it is a separable verb, it rang a bell in my head that might be the case. but, when searched I could not find the verb "dasein". Also, da is not in the list of prefixes which I will add the list to the next comment unless it is an exception. I could find the noun "das Dasein" which means "existence" or "being there". Sorry for doubting your answer but I am a little confused. I would be grateful if you guide me. @Buraian – Parsa Alimohammadi Jan 24 '22 at 05:29
  • https://deutsch.lingolia.com/en/grammar/verbs/separable-verbs https://www.thoughtco.com/germans-separable-prefix-verbs-4069187 – Parsa Alimohammadi Jan 24 '22 at 05:30