Word
Der Hund wird alt und schwach.
Meaning
The dog is getting old and weak.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der Hund wird alt und schwach.
und
and
der Hund
the dog
alt
old
werden
to become / to get (change of state)
Questions & Answers about Der Hund wird alt und schwach.
Why does wird mean "is getting" here? I thought it meant "will".
While werden is used as a helper verb to form the future tense ("will"), here it is used as the main verb. As a main verb, werden means "to become" or "to get" when talking about a change of state, like getting old or getting dark.
Why is the verb wird? Doesn't the root werd- mean it should be werdt for "the dog"?
Werden is an irregular verb. In the present tense, its stem vowel changes from e to i for the "you" (singular) and "he/she/it" forms. So for der Hund (which acts like "he" or "it"), the verb becomes wird.
English uses the "-ing" form ("is getting"). Why is it just the present tense wird in German?
German does not have a separate continuous tense like English does. The simple present tense wird can translate to both "gets" and "is getting" depending on what sounds most natural in English.
Why don't the adjectives alt and schwach have any endings, like alter?
Because they come after the verb to describe the subject, rather than sitting directly in front of a noun. In German, these "predicate adjectives" stay in their basic dictionary form and never take extra endings.