Breakdown of Das Buch ist klein und wiegt vierunddreißig Gramm.
sein
to be
und
and
klein
small
das Buch
the book
vier
four
dreißig
thirty
wiegen
to weigh
das Gramm
the gram
Questions & Answers about Das Buch ist klein und wiegt vierunddreißig Gramm.
How is the number vierunddreißig put together?
In German, compound numbers from 21 to 99 are read "backwards" compared to English. You say the single digit first, then "and", then the tens. So 34 is vier (four) + und (and) + dreißig (thirty). Notice that it is all written together as one single word. Also, keep an eye on dreißig—it is the only "tens" number that ends with an ess-tsett (-ßig) instead of a Z (-zig).
Since the book is 34 grams, why isn't Gramm pluralized?
What is the dictionary form of the verb wiegt?
The infinitive (dictionary form) is wiegen (to weigh). Because the subject of the sentence is das Buch (which acts like "it", or 3rd-person singular), we drop the -en ending from the infinitive and add a -t to get wiegt.
Why isn't there a word for "it" after the word und?
Just like in English ("The book is small and weighs..."), you do not have to repeat the subject if it is exactly the same for both actions in the sentence. You could technically say "...und es wiegt..." (and it weighs), but leaving the pronoun out is completely natural and makes the sentence flow better.
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