Breakdown of Er spricht nicht viel, aber er arbeitet sehr gut.
er
he
arbeiten
to work
sehr
very
gut
good / well
aber
but
viel
much / a lot
nicht
not
sprechen
to speak
Questions & Answers about Er spricht nicht viel, aber er arbeitet sehr gut.
Why is the verb spricht instead of "sprecht"?
spricht comes from the verb sprechen (to speak). It is a strong verb, which means its main vowel changes in the present tense for du (you) and er/sie/es (he/she/it). Here, the e in sprechen changes to an i, so it becomes er spricht.
Why does arbeitet have an extra e before the ending?
The infinitive verb is arbeiten (to work). If we remove the -en, the stem is arbeit-, which ends in a t. To make it easier to pronounce, German adds an extra e before the -t ending for er (he). That is why it is er arbeitet instead of "er arbeitt".
Why doesn't the word order change after aber?
aber (but) is a coordinating conjunction. Words like this simply link two sentences together without messing with their internal word order. It sits outside the structure of the second sentence, which just starts normally with the subject (er) followed by the verb (arbeitet).
Does gut mean "well" here, or "good"?
It means "well" here! In German, the exact same word gut is used for both the adjective "good" (like a good book) and the adverb "well" (like working well). You do not need to learn a separate word.
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