Word
Der Mann ohne Arbeit wird arm.
Meaning
The man without a job is getting poor.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der Mann ohne Arbeit wird arm.
der Mann
the man
die Arbeit
the work
ohne
without
werden
to become / to get (change of state)
Questions & Answers about Der Mann ohne Arbeit wird arm.
The translation says "is getting poor". Why doesn't wird mean "will" here?
While werden is often used as a helper verb to form the future tense (will), its main dictionary meaning is "to become" or "to get" (as in a change of state). Because there is no second verb at the end of this sentence, wird acts as the main verb, meaning the man "becomes" or "is getting" poor.
Why is the verb spelled wird with an "i" instead of an "e"?
The verb werden (to become) is irregular. In the present tense, its stem vowel changes from "e" to "i" for the du (you) and er/sie/es (he/she/it) forms. Since der Mann is a "he", we use wird.
What case does the preposition ohne trigger for Arbeit?
The preposition ohne (without) always takes the accusative case. You cannot see the case on the word Arbeit itself because there is no article (like die or eine) in front of it, but it is grammatically in the accusative.
Why doesn't the adjective arm have an ending like armer?
Adjectives only get special endings in German when they are placed directly in front of a noun (like in ein armer Mann). When they come after verbs like sein (to be) or werden (to become/get), they are called predicative adjectives and stay in their basic dictionary form.