Breakdown of Das Hotel ist hier, aber wo ist der Bus?
sein
to be
hier
here
aber
but
wo
where
das Hotel
the hotel
der Bus
the bus
Questions & Answers about Das Hotel ist hier, aber wo ist der Bus?
Why does the verb ist come right after wo in the second part of the sentence?
In German W-questions (questions starting with words like wo, wer, or was), the verb always takes the second position. So, the question word wo is in position one, and the verb ist is in position two, followed by the subject der Bus.
Does the word aber change the word order of the question?
No, aber (but) is a connecting word that simply links the two ideas. It is a coordinating conjunction, which means it sits outside the normal numbering of sentence positions. The question part wo ist der Bus follows the exact same word order rules as if it were a standalone sentence.
Wait, does wo mean who or where? They sound similar to English but seem mixed up!
This is a very common trap for beginners! In German, wo means where. If you want to say who, you must use the German word wer. They sound almost exactly like the opposite English words, so you have to be careful with these!
Why is it das Hotel but der Bus?
In German, every noun has a grammatical gender. Hotel is a neuter noun, so it uses the neuter article das (the). Bus is a masculine noun, so it uses the masculine article der (the). It is always best to memorize the matching article whenever you learn a new noun.
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