Breakdown of Wir hören den Applaus und die Instrumente jetzt auf der Bühne.
und
and
jetzt
now
wir
we
hören
to hear / to listen
auf
on / to (down/up to a level)
die Bühne
the stage
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
das Instrument
the instrument
der Applaus
the applause
Questions & Answers about Wir hören den Applaus und die Instrumente jetzt auf der Bühne.
Why does jetzt come before auf der Bühne?
In German, when a sentence has multiple descriptive phrases for time, manner, and place, time generally comes first. This rule is often called "Time, Manner, Place" (or TeKaMoLo). Therefore, the time word jetzt (now) must come before the place phrase auf der Bühne (on the stage). This can feel backward to English speakers, who often put "now" at the very end of the sentence.
Could we put jetzt auf der Bühne right after the verb, instead of at the end?
Yes, you can! You could say Wir hören jetzt auf der Bühne den Applaus und die Instrumente. In German, adverbs of time and place often go before the direct objects. Putting them at the end, as our example sentence does, is also totally fine and just puts a little more emphasis on the objects themselves. The important part is that jetzt still stays before auf der Bühne.
Why is it den Applaus but die Instrumente?
Both of these are direct objects receiving the action of the verb hören, which means they need to be in the accusative case. Applaus is a masculine noun, so its "the" changes from der to den. Instrumente is plural, and the plural "the" stays die in the accusative case.
Why do we use der Bühne if Bühne is a feminine noun?
The preposition auf (on) is a "two-way" preposition. It takes the accusative case when describing a movement towards a goal, but it takes the dative case when describing a fixed location (answering "where?"). Since the action is happening at a fixed place (on the stage), we use the dative case. In the dative case, the feminine "the" changes from die to der.
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