Breakdown of Trotz der Steuer ist die Wirtschaft stark.
sein
to be
stark
strong
die Wirtschaft
the economy
die Steuer
the tax
trotz
despite
Questions & Answers about Trotz der Steuer ist die Wirtschaft stark.
Why is the article der used here if Steuer is a feminine noun?
The preposition trotz (despite) requires the Genitive case. For feminine nouns like die Steuer, the definite article changes from die to der in the Genitive.
Why does the verb ist come before the subject die Wirtschaft?
German uses V2 (verb-second) word order. The entire prepositional phrase Trotz der Steuer takes up the first position in the sentence. Because the verb must come second, ist comes next, which pushes the subject die Wirtschaft into the third position.
I learned that trotz takes the Genitive, but I often hear Germans use it with the Dative. Which is it here?
In written and formal German, trotz strictly takes the Genitive case, which is what this lesson focuses on. Interestingly, because the feminine article for both Dative and Genitive is der, the phrase trotz der Steuer perfectly overlaps and looks identical whether you are using the standard Genitive or the colloquial Dative!
Could I use obwohl instead of trotz in this sentence?
Not with this exact wording. Trotz is a preposition meaning "despite" and only needs a noun phrase after it. Obwohl means "although" and is a subordinating conjunction. This means obwohl requires a complete clause with a conjugated verb pushed to the very end, like in: Obwohl die Steuer hoch ist, ist die Wirtschaft stark.
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