Breakdown of Verstehen Sie Ihren Chef?
Sie
you (formal)
verstehen
to understand
der Chef
the boss (male)
Ihren
your (formal, accusative masculine)
Questions & Answers about Verstehen Sie Ihren Chef?
Why is it Ihren instead of just Ihr?
Chef (boss) is a masculine noun, and in this sentence, he is the direct object (the person receiving the action of being understood). This means we must use the accusative case. For masculine nouns in the accusative case, the possessive ending is -en, turning the formal Ihr (your) into Ihren.
Why is Ihren capitalized in the middle of the sentence?
It is capitalized because it is the formal word for "your", matching the formal Sie (you) used earlier in the sentence. German always capitalizes these formal pronouns to show respect and to tell them apart from the words for "they" or "her".
Wait, doesn't Chef mean someone who cooks in a restaurant?
This is a classic "false friend"! In German, Chef strictly means "boss" or "manager" in a workplace. If you want to talk about a professional cook, you would use the word Koch (for a man) or Köchin (for a woman).
Why does the sentence start with the verb Verstehen?
Because this is a yes/no question. In German, you turn a regular statement like Sie verstehen (You understand) into a question by simply swapping the subject and the verb to get Verstehen Sie (Do you understand). Notice that German doesn't use a helper word like "do" to make questions!
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