Breakdown of Du musst aus der Flasche trinken.
du
you (informal singular)
aus
from / out of (made of)
trinken
to drink
müssen
to have to, must
Questions & Answers about Du musst aus der Flasche trinken.
Why is it der Flasche instead of die Flasche?
The word for "bottle" is feminine, so normally it is die Flasche. However, the preposition aus always forces the noun that follows it into the dative case. In the dative case, the feminine article die changes to der.
Doesn't aus usually mean "out of"?
Exactly! While the most natural English translation here is "from the bottle," Germans literally say they are drinking "out of the bottle" (aus der Flasche). When talking about drinking from a container, always use aus.
Why is the verb trinken at the very end of the sentence?
This is because of the modal verb musst (must). In German, the conjugated modal verb takes the second position in the sentence, and it pushes the main action verb (trinken) all the way to the end in its original dictionary form (the infinitive).
Why is it du musst and not "du müsst"?
The infinitive of the verb is müssen, but modal verbs are irregular in German. For the singular forms like ich, du, and er/sie/es, the stem vowel often changes. Here, the ü drops its umlaut and changes to a u, making it du musst.