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Questions & Answers about Woher kommt der Zug?
Why do we use woher instead of just wo?
Wo asks about a fixed location (where something is), but woher asks about the direction something is coming from (where from). Because the train is moving from somewhere else towards us, we need the directional word woher.
Why isn't there a word for 'from' at the end of the sentence like in English?
In German, the 'from' concept is built directly into the question word woher. You don't need a separate word at the end of the sentence. It literally translates as 'From-where comes the train?'.
Why does the verb kommt come before the subject der Zug?
In German questions that start with a question word (like woher, wo, or was), the verb must always take the second position. The subject (der Zug) then immediately follows the verb.
Why do we use der for the train?
Zug (train) is a masculine noun in German. Since it is the subject doing the action in this sentence, it stays in its basic form (the nominative case), which uses the masculine article der.