Breakdown of Obwohl der Film langweilig ist, bleiben die Leute.
sein
to be
die Leute
the people
der Film
the movie / the film
bleiben
to stay
langweilig
boring
obwohl
although
Questions & Answers about Obwohl der Film langweilig ist, bleiben die Leute.
Why is the verb ist at the very end of the first part of the sentence?
The word obwohl (although) is a subordinating conjunction. This means it creates a dependent clause and forces the conjugated verb—in this case, ist—to jump to the very end of that clause, right before the comma.
Why is it bleiben die Leute and not die Leute bleiben?
In German, the main verb of a regular clause almost always takes the second position. Because the entire first part of the sentence (Obwohl der Film langweilig ist) acts as one big block taking up position one, the verb bleiben must come immediately after the comma to take position two. The subject (die Leute) then follows it.
Is Leute a plural word? What if I only want to talk about one person?
Yes, die Leute (the people) is always plural, which is why we use the plural verb form bleiben. If you want to talk about a single person, you would use die Person (the person) or der Mensch (the human or person).
The English translation says "are staying", but there is no "are" in the German sentence. Why?
German doesn't have a separate continuous tense like English does (using "is" or "are" doing something). The simple present tense bleiben translates to both "stay" and "are staying", depending on what makes the most sense in context.
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