Breakdown of Woraus nähen Sie dieses Kleid?
Sie
you (formal)
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
das Kleid
the dress
woraus
out of what
nähen
to sew
Questions & Answers about Woraus nähen Sie dieses Kleid?
How does woraus work, and why is there an "r" in the middle?
It combines wo- (meaning "what" in this context) and the preposition aus (out of). Because aus starts with a vowel, German adds an -r- in the middle to make it easier to pronounce, creating woraus (out of what).
In English we say "What are you sewing this dress out of?" Can I put aus at the end of the German sentence?
No. In English, we often leave the preposition at the end of a question. In German, the question word and the preposition must stick together as a single "wo-compound" (woraus) and go at the very beginning of the question.
Why is it dieses Kleid with an -es at the end?
Kleid is a neuter noun (das Kleid). In this sentence, it is the direct object being sewn, which means it is in the accusative case. For neuter nouns in the accusative, the word for "this" (dies-) gets the ending -es.
Why is Sie capitalized in the middle of the sentence?
With a capital S, Sie is the formal word for "you". If you were asking a friend or a child, you would use the informal du and change the verb to match: Woraus nähst du dieses Kleid?
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