Breakdown of Der Verkäufer steht an der Kasse.
stehen
to stand
an
at, on (vertical) / to (addressee) / of (in quantity/stock expressions)
der Verkäufer
the shop assistant, the salesman
die Kasse
the till, the checkout
Questions & Answers about Der Verkäufer steht an der Kasse.
Why does the sentence use 'der Kasse' if 'Kasse' is a feminine word?
The word Kasse is indeed feminine (die Kasse). However, the preposition an (at) is a two-way preposition. Because the shop assistant is just standing in a fixed location, this answers the question 'Where?', which means we must use the dative case. In the dative case, the feminine die changes to der.
Does steht mean 'is standing' or 'stands'?
It means both! German does not have a separate continuous tense (like the English '-ing' form). Depending on the context, a present tense verb like steht translates perfectly to either 'stands' or 'is standing'.
Since we are learning the Perfekt (past) tense, how would I say this sentence in the past?
You would say: Der Verkäufer hat an der Kasse gestanden. The verb stehen (to stand) forms its past participle as gestanden. Because it is a normal strong verb that does not end in -ieren and does not have an inseparable prefix, it gets the standard ge- at the beginning.
Is there an easy way to remember the word Verkäufer?
Yes! It comes directly from the verb verkaufen, which means 'to sell'. Just like in English where a person who sells is a 'seller', adding -er to the German verb stem creates the noun for the person performing that action.