Questions & Answers about Wo ist der Bahnhof?
Why does Wo mean "where" when it looks so much like "who"?
This is one of the biggest "false friend" traps for English speakers! In German, wo means "where", and wer means "who". You will have to memorize this flip, as it comes up constantly.
Why is the verb ist right after the question word?
In German W-questions (questions starting with words like Wo, Was, or Wer), the conjugated verb always takes the second position. The structure is simply: Question Word + Verb + Subject.
Is Bahnhof a compound word?
Yes! It combines die Bahn (train or railway) and der Hof (courtyard). In German, compound nouns always take their gender from the last word in the chain. Because it is der Hof (masculine), the combined word is der Bahnhof.
Why do we use ist here instead of sind?
ist is the "he/she/it" form of the verb sein (to be). Because der Bahnhof (the train station) is a single place, it acts as a third-person singular subject (an "it"), so we must use ist.
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