Translation Help: I do not understand the structure of this

Translation Help: I do not understand the structure of this sentence so I cannot derive its full meaning. Can you all assist? Here is the sentence: Die Anderen wollen nicht mitgehen, aber uns ist es recht auch einmal allein unterwegs zu sein. I know what is trying to say to me, but I just don’t see it in the word order etc. Thanks.

die anderen = the others
wollen nicht = don’t want to
mitgehen = to accompany
aber = but, however
uns ist = we are (in this)
jemand recht sein = to be okay with
auch einmal = once in a while
allein = unescorted (probably best translation in this case)
unterwegs sein = to be on the road

I’m not sure if my translation is perfect, but I guess it transports the meaning:
The other don’t want to accompany us, however it is okay for us to be unescorted on the road once in a while.

1 Like

Vera has explained the meaning and I’ll try to explain the ‘word order’ in this phrase consisting of some sentences.
The main rule of the German word order is: the verb must be at the second and at the last place, that’s why:
Die anderen WOLLEN nicht MITGEHEN, /aber uns IST es recht, einmal unterwegs zu SEIN.
Before ‘sein’ is ‘zu’ like ‘to’ in English before the second verb.

Vielen, Vielen Dank! Perfekt! I do not know what I would do without out you all. I was not making that “ist”-“sein” connection in the second half of that sentence for the verbs. Super.

I have been thinking that the literal translation of ‘uns ist es recht’ is ‘for us it is alright (or ‘okay’)’ because ‘uns’ is in the dative case, not in the nominative case. The subject of ‘ist’ is actually ‘es’, meaning ‘it’. This seems to me to be a type of construction that is very common in German.

So, German does not actually say ‘we are okay with’, though the intended meaning, as put by Vera, is totally correct.

What is actually the situation?

@Ginkgo

Du hast es erfasst! Bravo!

j:-)

Danke schön Jolanda. I was so impressed by the le Carré speeches on another recent thread that I really want to continue to work on my German, even though I have not at all approached my learning in the traditional way. Ich habe einen langen Weg zu gehen, aber genieße ich die Reise sehr viel!

@Ginkgo

Gute Reise!
Der Weg ist das Ziel!

j;-)

Thanks again to all. Ginkgo58, I believe you asked for more context, if not, just ignore this. I provide the context next.

Der Himmel ist etwas verhangen, aber es regnet nicht. Jürgen und ich brechen morgens auf zu einer Wanderung. Die Anderen wollen nicht mitgehen, aber uns ist es recht auch einmal allein unterwegs zu sein.

Wir starten am Bahnhof von Kandern und folgen den Wegweisern zur Wolfsschlucht, durch die wir gehen wollen.

My thanks to Jolanda never made it to the board so I am just adding it back. Problems with submission this morning for me.