12

What is the difference between the following two sentences?

Die Meiers bleiben sehr gern unter sich.

Die Meiers bleiben überhaupt sehr gern unter sich.

I know that both mean something like

The Meiers [very much] like to keep to themselves.

I just can't figure out what the überhaupt contributes here. In other words, why/how would the second German sentence above fall short? Why would the speaker feel compelled to insert the überhaupt?

Community
  • 1
kjo
  • 3,495
  • 2
  • 20
  • 34

1 Answers1

11

"Überhaupt" here indicates that the statement is a generalization.

A possible example with some more context is:

Die Meiers nehmen nicht am gemeinsamen Abendessen teil. Sie bleiben überhaupt gern unter sich.

Here a possible translation could be "generally". So the above example translates to:

The Meiers don't participate in the joint dinner. They generally prefer to stay among themselves.

RHa
  • 15,887
  • 2
  • 30
  • 50
  • 1
    Hmmm... I would have used anyway, but that is perhaps more a translation of sowieso. – Rudy Velthuis May 20 '18 at 22:15
  • 3
    I'd note that überhaupt with this meaning is never used on its own. It's always preceded by a concrete example, just like @RHa wrote in the answer. – marstato May 20 '18 at 23:32