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Questions & Answers about Versteht die Frau das Kind?
Where is the word for "Does" in this sentence?
In German, you don't use helper words like "do" or "does" to ask a question. To make a Yes/No question, you simply move the conjugated verb to the very beginning of the sentence. This is called Verb-first word order. Literally, you are asking: "Understands the woman the child?"
How do we know the woman is the one understanding the child, and not the other way around?
In a Yes/No question, the subject (the person doing the action) normally comes right after the verb. Because die Frau is in that spot, she is the subject. das Kind follows as the direct object. Notice that the word das doesn't change when it becomes an object, unlike masculine words where der changes to den.
Why does the verb end in "-t" here instead of "-en"?
The verb verstehen (to understand) must match the subject, which is die Frau (the woman). Since she is a third-person singular subject (equivalent to "she" or sie), we take the verb stem versteh- and add the ending -t, giving us versteht.
Is the "V" in "Versteht" pronounced like an English V or F?
It is pronounced like an English "F". In German, the letter "V" is usually pronounced with an "F" sound, especially at the beginning of a word or a prefix.