Context: I’m missing a cutting board. So I wrote in our telegram family group: “Wo ist eigentlich unser zweites großes Schneidebrett hin?” (literally: “Where is actually our second big cuttingboard thither?”).
By using the modal particle “eigentlich” I insinuate that something is oddly off and express an emotional state of curiousity and/or mild discontent.
By adding “hin”, I notify that I ask because it is not where it is supposed to be and not because I don’t know where it should be.
Now I ask myself, how would I express this additional information in English?
From Copilot:
I understand that you want to know how to convey the nuances of the German modal particles “eigentlich” and “hin” in English. Modal particles are words that are used in speech to convey extra emphasis or emotion, without any real grammatical function. They are very common in German, but not so much in English.
There is no exact translation for “eigentlich” and “hin” in English, but you can use some words or phrases that have a similar effect. For example, you can use “actually”, “really”, “just”, “after all”, “anyway”, “by the way”, “in fact”, “well”, etc. depending on the context and the tone you want to express.
In your case, you could say something like:
Where did our second big cutting board go, anyway?
Where is our second big cutting board, really?
Where did our second big cutting board end up, by the way?
Where is our second big cutting board, after all?
These sentences imply that you are curious and/or slightly annoyed about the missing cutting board, and that it is not where it should be. Of course, the exact meaning and tone may vary depending on how you say them, and how the listener interprets them.
This sort of demonstrates why you shouldn’t use AI to translate anything longer than a word.