Word
Der Stecker, ohne den der Verstärker nicht funktioniert, ist wichtig.
Meaning
The plug the amplifier doesn't work without is important.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der Stecker, ohne den der Verstärker nicht funktioniert, ist wichtig.
sein
to be
nicht
not
funktionieren
to work (function)
wichtig
important
Questions & Answers about Der Stecker, ohne den der Verstärker nicht funktioniert, ist wichtig.
Why do we use den in ohne den instead of der?
The relative pronoun den refers back to Der Stecker, which is a masculine noun. Because the preposition ohne always requires the accusative case, the relative pronoun must take the masculine accusative form, which is den.
In English, the sentence ends with the word without. Can I put ohne at the end of the clause in German?
No, German does not allow you to leave a preposition stranded at the end of a clause. The preposition must always sit right in front of the relative pronoun it belongs to, acting as a single inseparable unit: ohne den.
Why are there two words for the (den der) right next to each other in the middle?
They are doing two completely different jobs! den is the relative pronoun in the accusative case because of ohne. Right next to it is der Verstärker, which is the subject of the relative clause and therefore in the nominative case.
Why is ist wichtig isolated at the very end of the sentence?
The core of the main sentence is simply Der Stecker ist wichtig. However, German relative clauses are usually inserted right after the noun they describe. We pause the main clause after Der Stecker, insert the descriptive relative clause between commas, and then resume the main clause to finish the thought.