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?
Is this one of two big cutting boards that are basically the same size or the one just below the largest in size (i.e. second biggest/largest). I was reading it as the latter, but i haven’t studied German in 20+ years now so I may be wrong
One of two big cutting boards that are the same size. The second largest would be “das zweitgrößte”.