Breakdown of Das Personal kontrolliert die Sauberkeit.
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
kontrollieren
to inspect
das Personal
the staff
die Sauberkeit
the cleanliness
Questions & Answers about Das Personal kontrolliert die Sauberkeit.
Why is kontrolliert translated as 'checks' instead of 'controls'?
Kontrollieren is a classic false friend. While it can sometimes mean 'to control', it is almost always used in German to mean 'to check', 'to inspect', or 'to monitor'. If you want to say 'to control' in the sense of having power over or directing something, you would use a word like steuern or beherrschen.
In English we often say 'the staff are', but here it uses the singular verb kontrolliert. Is Personal always singular?
Yes. Das Personal is a collective noun and is strictly singular in German. Even though it refers to a group of people, the verb must take the singular form. This is similar to other German collective nouns like die Polizei (the police) or die Familie (the family).
Is there a reliable way to know the gender of Sauberkeit?
Yes! Sauberkeit (cleanliness) is formed from the adjective sauber (clean) plus the suffix -keit. Any German noun ending in -keit (or its twin -heit) is always feminine and takes the article die. These suffixes work just like '-ness' in English.
How would I use this lesson's grammar to say 'The staff checks not only the cleanliness, but also the safety'?
You would say: Das Personal kontrolliert nicht nur die Sauberkeit, sondern auch die Sicherheit. The two-part conjunction nicht nur ... sondern auch links two elements of equal grammatical weight, so you simply place the parts directly in front of the two nouns you are emphasizing.
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