Questions & Answers about Nein, aber wir haben Durst.
Why does the German sentence use haben (have) instead of sind (are)?
In English, we say we are thirsty using the verb 'to be' and an adjective. In German, the standard way to express this is to say you have thirst: wir haben Durst. Durst is a noun meaning 'thirst'. You do the same thing with hunger: wir haben Hunger (we are hungry).
Is haben the infinitive (dictionary form) of the verb, or is it conjugated for wir?
It is both! In German, the conjugated verb for the pronoun wir (we) almost always looks exactly the same as the infinitive form. So, the infinitive is haben (to have), and 'we have' is wir haben.
Why is Durst capitalized here?
In German, all nouns (words for people, places, things, and concepts) are capitalized. Because Durst (thirst) is a noun, it must start with a capital letter, no matter where it appears in the sentence.
Does the word aber (but) change the word order in this sentence?
No, it doesn't. In standard German statements, the verb usually has to be in the second position. However, a few connecting words like aber (but) and und (and) count as 'position zero'—they don't take up a slot. So, wir is in position 1, and the verb haben stays right where it belongs in position 2.