Breakdown of Der Palast, der wunderschön ist, liegt der Post gegenüber.
sein
to be
die Post
the post office
wunderschön
gorgeous
liegen
to lie
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
gegenüber
opposite, across from
der Palast
the palace
Questions & Answers about Der Palast, der wunderschön ist, liegt der Post gegenüber.
Why is gegenüber at the very end of the sentence instead of before der Post?
The preposition gegenüber (opposite) is special because it can go either before or after its noun. You can say gegenüber der Post or der Post gegenüber. Both are completely correct and mean the same thing, though putting it after the noun is very common.
The word for post office is die Post. Why does the sentence use der Post?
The preposition gegenüber always forces the noun belonging to it into the dative case. Because Post is a feminine noun, its article changes from die to der in the dative case.
Why are there two der words almost back-to-back at the beginning (Der Palast, der...)?
The first Der is just the normal article for Palast. The second der is a relative pronoun meaning 'which' or 'that'. It points back to the masculine noun Palast so you can add extra information about it in the middle of the sentence.
Why does the verb ist come right before the second comma?
The phrase der wunderschön ist is a relative clause. In German, these dependent clauses always push their conjugated verb to the very end of that specific clause, right before the comma that separates it from the rest of the sentence.
Why use liegt instead of ist to say where the palace is?
While you can use ist (is), German frequently uses the verb liegen (to lie) to describe the physical location of buildings, cities, or countries. It sounds much more natural when talking about where something is geographically situated.
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