Breakdown of Das Mädchen hört abends Musik, und der Junge liest ein Buch.
ein
a, an (eine)
und
and
das Buch
the book
der Junge
the boy
das Mädchen
the girl
lesen
to read
abends
in the evening
hören
to hear / to listen
die Musik
the music
Questions & Answers about Das Mädchen hört abends Musik, und der Junge liest ein Buch.
Why is the verb spelled liest instead of lest?
liest comes from the verb lesen (to read). lesen is a strong verb that changes its stem vowel from e to ie for the he/she/it (er/sie/es) and informal you (du) forms. Since the boy (der Junge) is a he, the verb changes to liest.
Why uses the sentence das Mädchen if a girl is obviously female?
In German, grammatical gender doesn't always match biological gender. The word Mädchen ends in -chen, which is an ending used to make things sound small or cute. Every single German noun that ends in -chen is neuter, so it must use das.
Why is abends written with a lowercase a and an s at the end?
While der Abend (the evening) is a noun and gets capitalized, adding an s to the end turns it into an adverb meaning in the evening or evenings. In German, adverbs are not capitalized unless they are the very first word of a sentence.
Does the verb hören (to listen) also change its vowel like lesen does?
No, hören is a regular verb, meaning its stem never changes. You just take the stem hör and add the regular ending -t for the he/she/it form, giving you das Mädchen hört.
Why doesn't the word und push the verb to the end of the sentence?
The word und (and) simply links two normal sentences together without counting as a position in the sentence structure. Because it sits in position zero, the subject der Junge is still in position one, and the verb liest stays exactly where it belongs in position two.
Learn Das Mädchen hört abends Musik, und der Junge liest ein Buch and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free