Breakdown of Der Hund war im Haus, aber er rennt heraus.
sein
to be
er
he
der Hund
the dog
das Haus
the house
in
in
aber
but
rennen
to run
heraus
out (towards speaker)
Questions & Answers about Der Hund war im Haus, aber er rennt heraus.
Why does the sentence use heraus instead of hinaus?
her means motion towards the speaker, and aus means out of. By using heraus, the sentence implies the speaker is currently outside the house, watching the dog run out towards them. If the speaker were still inside the house watching the dog run away from them, they would use hinaus.
Why do we say im Haus instead of ins Haus?
im is short for in dem, which is the dative case. We use the dative case with two-way prepositions like in to describe a fixed location (answering "where?"). Since the dog was already inside, it is im Haus. If the dog were running into the house (a destination), we would use the accusative case: ins Haus.
Doesn't the verb go to the end of the sentence after a comma?
Not always! The word aber (but) is a coordinating conjunction. Words in this group (like und, oder, and aber) simply link two main sentences together without changing the word order. aber acts as a bridge and doesn't take up a numbered slot, so the subject er is position one, and the verb rennt stays in its normal second position.
Why is the dog referred to as er (he)? What if the dog is female?
In German, pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace. Because the general word for dog is masculine (der Hund), you must use the masculine pronoun er in the next clause, even if the actual animal happens to be female.
Learn Der Hund war im Haus, aber er rennt heraus and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free