Word
Man sucht den Täter, weil er flieht.
Meaning
One is looking for the perpetrator because he is fleeing.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Man sucht den Täter, weil er flieht.
er
he
suchen
to look for
man
one / you (impersonal)
weil
because (subordinating)
Questions & Answers about Man sucht den Täter, weil er flieht.
Why is the verb flieht at the very end of the sentence?
The word weil (because) starts a subordinate clause. Just like the relative clauses you are focusing on in this lesson, these types of clauses push the conjugated verb—in this case, flieht—to the very end of the sentence.
Does man mean the same thing as the English word "man"?
Not exactly! The lowercase word man is a general pronoun that translates to "one", "people", or "they", like saying "They are looking for the perpetrator." If you want to talk about a specific adult male, you would use the capitalized noun der Mann.
Why is it den Täter instead of der Täter?
Täter (perpetrator) is a masculine noun. Because the perpetrator is the one being looked for, it is the direct object of the verb sucht. This means it must take the accusative case, which changes the masculine article from der to den.
Who does er refer to in the second clause?
er refers back to the perpetrator. In German, pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace. Since der Täter is a masculine noun, we use the masculine nominative pronoun er as the subject of the weil clause.