Breakdown of Das Bett ist schwer, es wiegt achtundvierzig Kilo.
sein
to be
es
it
und
and
acht
eight
das Bett
the bed
vierzig
forty
wiegen
to weigh
das Kilo
the kilo
schwer
heavy / severe, serious
Questions & Answers about Das Bett ist schwer, es wiegt achtundvierzig Kilo.
Why is "forty-eight" written backwards as achtundvierzig?
In German, compound numbers between 21 and 99 are formed by putting the "ones" digit first, then und (and), and finally the "tens" digit. So, 48 is literally "eight-and-forty": acht + und + vierzig. Also, notice that these numbers are always mashed together into one single word!
Since the bed weighs 48 kilos, why isn't Kilo pluralized as "Kilos"?
In German, masculine and neuter units of measurement or weight (like Kilo, Gramm, or Liter) usually stay in their singular form when they come directly after a number. So you say ein Kilo (one kilo) and also achtundvierzig Kilo (forty-eight kilos).
Why do we use the pronoun es in the second part of the sentence?
The pronoun es (it) refers back to das Bett (the bed). Because Bett is a neuter noun—which we can tell from the "the" word das—you have to use the neuter pronoun es when you talk about it later in the sentence.
I learned that schwer means "difficult" or "hard". Why is it translated as "heavy" here?
The word schwer actually has two very common meanings! It can mean "difficult" (like a test or a task), but it also means physically "heavy". Because this sentence is talking about how much a bed weighs (wiegt), it means "heavy" in this context.
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