Breakdown of Die Preise steigen oft wegen des Streiks.
oft
often
der Preis
the price
wegen
because of
der Streik
the strike
steigen
to rise (go up, increase)
Questions & Answers about Die Preise steigen oft wegen des Streiks.
Why does the sentence use des Streiks instead of the dative dem Streik?
The preposition wegen (because of) strictly requires the genitive case in standard German. Because Streik is a masculine noun (der Streik), the definite article changes to des, and the noun itself gets an -s added to the end.
Is it common to hear people say wegen dem Streik instead?
Yes! In casual spoken German, many native speakers use the dative case with wegen, saying wegen dem Streik. However, standard written German and formal grammar rules (like those tested at the B1 level) require the genitive case, which gives us wegen des Streiks.
Are there rules for whether to add -s or -es to the end of a noun in the genitive case?
For masculine and neuter nouns, you generally add -s to multi-syllable words and either -s or -es to single-syllable words like Streik. However, nouns ending in an s or z sound strictly require -es. For Streik, both des Streiks and des Streikes are grammatically correct, but des Streiks is much more common today.
Could I put wegen des Streiks at the very beginning of the sentence?
Absolutely. You could say, Wegen des Streiks steigen die Preise oft. Just remember that bringing the prepositional phrase to the front takes up the first position in the sentence, so the conjugated verb steigen must immediately follow it in the second position.
Learn Die Preise steigen oft wegen des Streiks and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free