Breakdown of Die Teilnehmer lieben das Meditieren, aber wir verbieten das Meckern.
aber
but
wir
we
lieben
to love
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
meckern
to complain
verbieten
to forbid
der Teilnehmer
the participant
meditieren
to meditate
Questions & Answers about Die Teilnehmer lieben das Meditieren, aber wir verbieten das Meckern.
Why are Meditieren and Meckern capitalized and used with das?
They are nominalized infinitives (verbs turned into nouns). In German, you can take the infinitive form of almost any verb, capitalize it, and use it as a neuter noun that always takes the article das. This is how German expresses the English "-ing" noun (gerund), like "meditating" or "complaining".
What case are das Meditieren and das Meckern in here?
They are both in the accusative case because they are the direct objects of the verbs lieben (to love) and verbieten (to forbid). Because nominalized infinitives are always neuter, their accusative article is das, which happens to look exactly the same as the nominative.
Is Meckern the standard word for "complaining"?
meckern is a very common, slightly colloquial word for complaining, whining, or grousing about petty things. If you want a more formal or serious word for "to complain", you would use sich beschweren. Fun fact: meckern is also the word for the "baa" or bleating sound a goat makes!
Why doesn't aber push the verb verbieten to the end of the sentence?
The word aber (but) is a coordinating conjunction, not a subordinating one. Coordinating conjunctions like aber, und, and oder take "position 0" in a clause. This means the subject wir takes position 1, and the conjugated verb verbieten stays exactly where it belongs in position 2.
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