Breakdown of An der großen Kreuzung kommt ein Auto aus der falschen Richtung.
ein
a, an (eine)
groß
big / tall
kommen
to come
aus
from / out of (made of)
falsch
wrong
das Auto
the car
an
at, on (vertical) / to (addressee) / of (in quantity/stock expressions)
die Kreuzung
the intersection
die Richtung
the direction
Questions & Answers about An der großen Kreuzung kommt ein Auto aus der falschen Richtung.
Why do both großen and falschen end in -en?
They are both adjectives in the dative case following a definite article (der). In German, whenever an adjective comes after a definite article (like the, this, or that) in the dative case, it always gets an -en ending, no matter the gender of the noun. Here, both Kreuzung and Richtung are feminine nouns, so their 'the' in the dative is der.
Why is it An der großen Kreuzung instead of An die große Kreuzung?
The preposition an is a 'two-way' preposition. It takes the dative case when describing a fixed location (answering 'where?') and the accusative when describing movement to a new place (answering 'where to?'). Because the event is happening at the intersection, we use the dative feminine article der.
Does the preposition aus also depend on whether there is movement?
No, aus is much simpler! It is a 'dative-only' preposition. It always forces the following noun into the dative case, regardless of movement or location. That's why the feminine noun Richtung (direction) uses the dative article der.
Why does the sentence say kommt ein Auto instead of ein Auto kommt?
This is because of the 'verb second' rule in German. The conjugated verb (kommt) must be the second element in a standard statement. Since the long prepositional phrase An der großen Kreuzung takes up the entire first position, the verb must come next, pushing the subject (ein Auto) to the other side of the verb.
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