Breakdown of Was macht deine Mutter jetzt?
machen
to make, to do
jetzt
now
was
what
dein
your (informal)
die Mutter
the mother
Questions & Answers about Was macht deine Mutter jetzt?
Why is it deine and not just dein?
In German, possessive words like "your" have to match the gender of the noun they describe. Because Mutter is a feminine noun and it is the subject of the sentence (in the Nominative case), we add an -e to the end of dein, making it deine. If the noun were masculine (Vater) or neuter (Kind), it would just stay dein.
Why is the translation "is doing" if macht just means "does" or "makes"?
German doesn't have an "-ing" tense (present continuous) like English does. The single present tense verb macht covers both "does" and "is doing". Because the sentence includes the word jetzt (now), we know the action is happening right this second, so "is doing" is the most natural English translation.
Doesn't the verb machen usually mean "to make"?
It can mean "to make", but it is also the standard, everyday verb for "to do"! You will see machen used all the time in German to ask about general activities, just like in English.
Why does the subject (deine Mutter) come after the verb (macht)?
In German "W-questions" (questions starting with a question word like Was, Wo, or Wer), the conjugated verb must always be in the second position. So, the question word Was comes first, the verb macht comes second, and the subject deine Mutter has to tuck in right behind the verb.
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