Breakdown of Der Schüler macht die Hausaufgaben.
machen
to make, to do
die Hausaufgabe
the homework
der Schüler
the pupil, the school student
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching German grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Der Schüler macht die Hausaufgaben.
English says 'homework' as a singular word. Is Hausaufgaben singular or plural here?
It is plural! In German, die Hausaufgabe is singular (one single assignment), but it is usually used in the plural (die Hausaufgaben) when talking about homework in general. The English translation uses the singular because 'homework' is an uncountable noun in English.
How would you change this sentence to command a group of pupils to do their homework, using the informal plural (ihr) form?
To give a command to a group of people you know informally, you take the ihr conjugation of the verb and simply drop the word ihr. Since 'you (plural) do' is ihr macht, the command becomes: Macht die Hausaufgaben!
What if the teacher addresses older pupils formally and wants to command them using the Sie form?
For the formal Sie imperative, you keep the pronoun but swap the word order so the verb comes first. The statement Sie machen die Hausaufgaben becomes the command: Machen Sie die Hausaufgaben!
How can we tell if der Schüler is a male or female pupil?
The word der Schüler specifically refers to a male pupil, which we can tell by the masculine article der. A female pupil would be die Schülerin. Also, note that this word is generally used for children in school; a university student would be der Student or die Studentin.