Breakdown of Warum wirft man Müll auf der Straße?
auf
on / to (down/up to a level)
warum
why
man
one / you (impersonal)
die Straße
the street
Questions & Answers about Warum wirft man Müll auf der Straße?
Which verb conjugation does man use?
The impersonal pronoun man always takes the third-person singular form of the verb, exactly like er, sie, or es. Because man acts as a singular subject, we conjugate the verb as wirft.
Does man always translate exactly to "one"?
Not in everyday English! While "Why does one throw garbage?" is the literal translation, we usually say "Why do people throw garbage?" or "Why do you throw garbage?" using a general "you". In German, man is the most natural way to express this general idea about people as a whole.
I know the infinitive is werfen. Why does the vowel change to an "i" in wirft?
werfen is a strong (irregular) verb. For strong verbs with an "e" in the stem, the vowel often changes to "i" or "ie" in the second- and third-person singular (du and er/sie/es/man). Because of this rule, ich werfe becomes man wirft.
Why does the subject man come after the verb wirft?
Because this is a question starting with a question word (Warum). In German question-word questions (W-questions), the conjugated verb always takes the second position, and the subject is pushed to the third position immediately following the verb.