Breakdown of Es ist kalt und er trägt eine Jacke.
sein
to be
ein
a, an (eine)
er
he
es
it
und
and
kalt
cold
die Jacke
the jacket
tragen
to carry, to wear
Questions & Answers about Es ist kalt und er trägt eine Jacke.
Who or what is es in this sentence?
Es means "it", but here it is the impersonal es. Just like in English when we say "it is cold" or "it is raining", German uses es as a dummy subject to talk about weather and temperatures. Since every sentence needs a subject, es steps in to do the job!
Why does the verb trägt have an umlaut (the two dots) over the a?
Trägt comes from the verb tragen (to wear / to carry). It is a strong verb, meaning it changes its stem vowel for the du (you) and er/sie/es (he/she/it) forms. The a changes to an ä, making it er trägt.
The translation says "is wearing", but doesn't trägt just mean "wears"?
German only has one present tense. It does not have a separate "is doing" form like English. Because of this, er trägt translates to both "he wears" (as a habit) and "he is wearing" (right now).
Why doesn't the word order change after the word und?
The word und (and) connects two main clauses, but it counts as being in "position zero". This means it doesn't take up the first slot of the new sentence. The pronoun er takes position 1, keeping the verb trägt correctly in the second position.
Why is it eine Jacke? Is this the accusative case?
Yes! The jacket is the direct object receiving the action (it is the thing being worn), so it must be in the accusative case. Because Jacke is a feminine noun, its article eine looks exactly the same as it does in the basic nominative case.
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