Meaning of "Lars kam sich unendlich verlassen vor"?

Question

I'm reading *Kleiner Eisbär, wohin fährst du?* von Hans de Beer but I'm puzzled by this sentence:> Lars kam sich unendlich verlassen vor.If *verlassen* is a reflexive verb as the word *sich* suggests, then the sentence means Lars depends on his father. But if *verlassen* is an adjective then the sentence appears to read as "Lars came himself endlessly deserted before." I can't figure out how the words *sich* and *vor* function in this sentence.

Answer 1

Let me shed some light on this tricky German sentence. The reflexive verb is "sich vorkommen", which simply means "feel" in this sentence, and of course, it is not reflexive in English. Many German reflexive verbs are not reflexive in English. There are even verbs in German that cannot be expressed as verbs, but only as adjectives in English. Welll, back to our reflexive verb "sich vorkommen". Unfortunately, it is also a separable verb, meaning the prefix "vor" splits off and goes to the end of the sentence when the verb is conjugated as in "ich komme mir .... vor", "du kommst dir .... vor", "er kommt sich ..... vor", etc. So how did Lars feel in this sentence? "unendlich verlassen", which means "incredibly lonely". Hence, the sentence "Lars kam sich unendlich verlassen vor" means "Lars felt incredibly lonely."

Viel Spass noch beim Lesen!

Answer 2

Ok, when you look at the "vor" as a preposition it won't make much sense but here "vor" is the prefix that is separated from the rest of the verb, the infinitive is "(sich) vorkommen", which translates into "feel ____" - here "feel abandoned" (verlassen). Does this help?