Breakdown of Liest du das Rezept, während du den Fisch würzt?
du
you (informal singular)
lesen
to read
der Fisch
the fish
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
während
while
würzen
to season
das Rezept
the recipe
Questions & Answers about Liest du das Rezept, während du den Fisch würzt?
How does the word während affect the word order here?
während (while) is a subordinating conjunction. In German, subordinating conjunctions kick the conjugated verb to the very end of their clause. That is why the verb würzt comes at the end of the second half of the sentence, after the object den Fisch.
The English translation says "Are you reading". Why doesn't the German sentence use a word for "are"?
German doesn't have a separate continuous tense (like the English "-ing" form). The present tense verb liest covers both "do you read" and "are you reading". The word während already makes it perfectly clear that these two actions are happening continuously at the exact same time.
Why does the second clause use den Fisch instead of der Fisch?
Fisch is a masculine noun. In this clause, it is the direct object receiving the action of the verb würzen (to season). Because it is the direct object, it must be in the accusative case, which changes the masculine article from der to den.
The dictionary says "to season" is würzen. Shouldn't the "du" form be würzst?
Normally, the du form of a verb ends in -st. However, if the verb stem already ends in an s-sound (like -z, -s, -ß, or -x), adding another s makes it too hard to pronounce. Instead, German drops the extra s and just adds a -t. That is why it becomes du würzt.
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