Breakdown of Das Leben in der Wohngemeinschaft macht Spaß.
machen
to make, to do
in
in
der Spaß
the fun
das Leben
the life
die Wohngemeinschaft
the flatshare
Questions & Answers about Das Leben in der Wohngemeinschaft macht Spaß.
Why is it in der Wohngemeinschaft instead of in die?
The word in is a two-way preposition. Because the sentence describes a static location where something is happening (inside the flatshare) rather than movement to a new destination, we use the dative case. Wohngemeinschaft is feminine, so its dative article is der.
Why does the sentence use macht (makes) instead of 'ist' (is)?
In English, we say something 'is fun', but German treats fun as something that is produced. You will always use the phrase Spaß machen (to make fun) to express this idea.
Is Wohngemeinschaft a common word, or is there a shorter version?
While Wohngemeinschaft is the official word for a shared apartment or flatshare, Germans almost always abbreviate it to WG (pronounced vey-gay) in daily conversation.
If we were already talking about flatshares, how would I say 'Life in mine is fun' using a possessive pronoun?
You would say Das Leben in meiner macht Spaß. Because the replaced noun (Wohngemeinschaft) is feminine and requires the dative case here after the preposition in, the standalone possessive pronoun replacing it gets the dative feminine ending, becoming meiner.
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