For such a small word, this is giving me a fit on what it means and its placement in a sentence. For example: 1) Super Idee, aber liegt denn schon irgendwo Schnee? (Lesson 7.1) 2) Mochten Sie schon etwas zu trinken bestellen? (Newsletter) Any help would be greatly appreciated, Roland

OK, one more example: 3) Na, es ist schon lange her. (Lesson 7.2) Thanks again, Roland

I will try to give you a little help, mind you I am just another person learning as well. You can interpret the word "schon" to mean "still" or "already". In your first example, you would interpret it to mean "still". She's basically saying is there still snow on the ground. In the second example, it leans more towards "already". The person is asking if you're ready to order a drink. In your next topic, you could interpret it to mean "already" also. The statement is saying it was along time ago. I know I've really only given you the answers, but I hope it's helped. The German language can not always be taken literally word for word. It's like when you listen to someone speaking, you must hear __the whole statement__, because all the words combined bring out the meaning. Mostly beacause of tenses,cases, and soforth. Don't loose hope man, it gets easier and it is completely possible to speak and understand German. I live in Germany now and even the people from here have a saying which means... "blessed are the people who were born in to this language!" hahaha Viel Glück!!! :P

Thanks Cooper. That helps ALOT!!

Hi there, the first example " Super Idee, aber liegt denn schon irgendwo Schnee?" means "Great idea, but is there anywhere where there is snow already?". It is late fall so Nik wants to know whether it is too early to go skiing or not. In most cases you can translate "schon" with "already". I hope that helps.