Breakdown of Mein Vater arbeitet sehr viel.
arbeiten
to work
sehr
very
viel
much / a lot
mein
my
der Vater
the father
Questions & Answers about Mein Vater arbeitet sehr viel.
Why is it Mein Vater and not Meine Vater?
Vater (father) is a masculine noun. In the nominative case, which is used for the subject of the sentence, the word for 'my' before a masculine noun is simply mein without any added endings. You would use meine if the noun were feminine or plural.
Why does the verb arbeitet have an extra e before the final t?
The base verb is arbeiten (to work). When you remove the -en, you get the stem arbeit-, which ends in a t. To make it easier to pronounce for 'he, she, or it' (like Mein Vater), German adds a small e before the usual -t ending, making it arbeitet.
How would I say 'Your father works a lot' if I am talking to a friend?
You would replace Mein (My) with Dein (Your). Just like mein, the informal word dein doesn't get any extra endings when it comes before a masculine subject. The sentence would be: Dein Vater arbeitet sehr viel.
Can I just say viel instead of sehr viel to mean 'a lot'?
Yes, viel means 'a lot' or 'much' on its own. However, Germans often add sehr (very) to make it sehr viel (very much) to really emphasize the amount of work.
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