Breakdown of Der Zeuge sieht die Frau, die schnell flieht.
die Frau
the woman
schnell
fast, quickly
sehen
to see
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Zeuge
the witness
fliehen
to flee, to escape
Questions & Answers about Der Zeuge sieht die Frau, die schnell flieht.
Why is the relative pronoun die used here?
Relative pronouns get their gender from the noun they refer to, which is the feminine noun die Frau. However, they get their case from their role in their own clause. Even though the woman is the object being seen in the first half of the sentence, she is the subject (the one doing the fleeing) in the second half. Therefore, die is in the nominative case.
Why does the verb flieht come at the very end of the sentence?
The phrase die schnell flieht is a relative clause, which is a type of subordinate clause. In German, these clauses always push the conjugated verb to the very end of their section of the sentence.
The word for witness is der Zeuge. Doesn't an -e ending usually mean a word is feminine?
Usually, yes! Most German nouns ending in -e are feminine. However, there is a specific group of masculine nouns that end in -e, often referring to male people (like der Junge for boy, or der Kollege for colleague). Der Zeuge belongs to this group.
The English translation says 'is fleeing', but the German is just flieht. Why isn't there a translation for the word 'is'?
German does not have a continuous tense like English does. The simple present tense flieht translates to both 'flees' and 'is fleeing', depending on what sounds most natural in English context.
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