Questions & Answers about Es regnet und sie nimmt den Schirm.
Why is it Es regnet instead of Es ist regnen?
English uses 'it is raining' for things happening right now, but German does not have a continuous tense. You simply use the pronoun es (it) and the standard present tense verb regnet. Es regnet translates to both 'it rains' and 'it is raining'.
Why does the verb nehmen (to take) change to nimmt here?
nehmen is an irregular verb with a vowel shift. When used with er, sie, or es (he, she, it), the e in the stem changes to an i. It also has an unusual spelling shift where the h is dropped and the m is doubled, resulting in sie nimmt.
Why is it den Schirm and not der Schirm?
Schirm (umbrella) is a masculine noun. Because the umbrella is the direct object of the sentence (the thing being taken), it must be in the accusative case. The masculine word for 'the' changes from der to den in the accusative.
Does the word und affect the word order in the second half of the sentence?