Breakdown of Man beobachtet das Haus, das so dunkel ist.
sein
to be
das Haus
the house
dunkel
dark
so
so, such (intensifier)
man
one / you (impersonal)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
beobachten
to observe, to watch
Questions & Answers about Man beobachtet das Haus, das so dunkel ist.
Why are there two das words right next to each other?
The first das is the article "the" belonging to Haus. The second das is a relative pronoun meaning "which" or "that". It links the describing clause back to das Haus.
Why is the relative pronoun das in the nominative case here?
A relative pronoun takes its gender from the noun it describes (neuter das Haus), but its case comes from its job in its own clause. Here, das is the subject of the phrase "which is so dark," so it must be in the nominative case.
Why is the verb ist at the very end of the sentence?
The second half of the sentence is a relative clause. In German, a relative clause always pushes its conjugated verb (here, ist) to the very end.
Since man means people in general, why does the verb end in a singular -t?
Even though man can translate to "people" or "they" in English, it is grammatically singular in German. Just like "he", "she", or "it", man takes the third-person singular verb ending, giving us beobachtet.
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