Breakdown of Der Mann lässt die Hose beim Schneider kürzen.
der Mann
the man
die Hose
the pants / the trousers
beim
at the (bei + dem)
lassen
to have something done (causative)
der Schneider
the tailor
kürzen
to shorten
Questions & Answers about Der Mann lässt die Hose beim Schneider kürzen.
Why does the German sentence use the infinitive kürzen when the English translation uses the past participle 'shortened'?
This is exactly how the causative lassen works! When you have someone else do something for you, German uses a conjugated form of lassen plus the infinitive of the action verb at the end of the sentence. English says 'have something done', but German says 'have something do' (lässt ... kürzen).
How does lassen affect the word order here?
When used as a causative verb (meaning to have a service done), lassen acts just like a modal verb. The conjugated verb (lässt) takes the second position in the sentence, and the main action verb (kürzen) is pushed to the very end in its infinitive form.
Why is it die Hose (singular) when we translate it to 'the trousers' (plural)?
In English, words for things with two legs like trousers, pants, or shorts are always plural. In German, a pair of trousers is just a normal singular object: die Hose. If you said die Hosen, it would mean multiple pairs of trousers!
Why do we use beim for 'at the tailor'?
beim is a contraction of the preposition bei and the article dem. You use bei to say you are located at a person's business, workspace, or home. Because bei is a strict dative preposition, the masculine noun der Schneider changes to dem Schneider, combining into beim Schneider.
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