Breakdown of Womit schneidest du das Papier? Mit der Schere?
du
you (informal singular)
mit
with
schneiden
to cut
womit
with what
das Papier
the paper
die Schere
the scissors
Questions & Answers about Womit schneidest du das Papier? Mit der Schere?
Why does the sentence use womit to mean "with what" instead of just saying mit was?
In German, when you ask a question about a thing (not a person) that involves a preposition like mit (with), you generally don't use the preposition plus was. Instead, you combine wo- and the preposition into a single word: womit. If you were asking about a person ("with whom"), you would use mit wem.
Why is it mit der Schere? Isn't the word for scissors feminine (die)?
Yes, the basic word is die Schere. However, the preposition mit always forces the noun that follows it into the dative case. In the dative case, the feminine article die changes to der.
The English translation says "the scissors", which is plural. Is die Schere singular or plural?
It is singular! Unlike English, where we use the plural "scissors" for a single tool, German treats it as a normal singular noun: die Schere. If you were talking about multiple tools, you would use the plural form die Scheren.
Why does the verb schneidest come before the subject du?
In German W-questions (questions starting with a question word), the conjugated verb must always take the second position. The question word womit takes up the entire first position, so the verb schneidest must come next, followed by the subject du.
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