Questions & Answers about Er ist alt, aber er wird nicht schwach.
Why does the English translation say "getting weak" instead of "becoming weak"?
In German, werden translates directly to "to become." However, in English, we often use "to get" or "to grow" to describe a change in physical state or condition (like getting old, getting tired, or getting weak). Whenever you want to express that someone is "getting [adjective]" in this way, you use werden as the main verb.
Why is the verb wird instead of "werdet"?
The verb werden 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. So while "I become" is ich werde, "he becomes" is er wird.
Why doesn't the verb wird come right after aber? I thought the verb has to be in the second position.
Common connecting words like aber (but), und (and), and oder (or) take up what is called "position zero." This means they don't count when figuring out the verb's place. The subject (er) takes position one, and the verb (wird) takes position two, exactly as it would if aber wasn't in the sentence at all.
Could I say "er wird schwach nicht"?
No, because of how negation works with adjectives. When you negate an adjective like schwach (weak), the word nicht must go directly in front of the adjective it is negating.