Breakdown of Das Weibchen schläft während des Regens auf dem Nest.
schlafen
to sleep
der Regen
the rain
auf
on / to (down/up to a level)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
Questions & Answers about Das Weibchen schläft während des Regens auf dem Nest.
Why is it Das Weibchen (neuter) if it refers to a female animal?
Any German noun ending in the diminutive suffix -chen is automatically neuter. Even though a Weibchen is a female animal, its grammatical gender is neuter, so it takes the article das.
Can I use Weibchen to refer to a human female?
No, Weibchen and its male equivalent Männchen are used for animals in German. For human females, you would use Frau (woman) or Mädchen (girl).
Why do we say des Regens after während?
The preposition während (during) requires the genitive case in standard German. Since Regen is a masculine noun (der Regen), it changes to des Regens in the genitive.
Why does this sentence use auf dem Nest (dative) instead of auf das Nest (accusative)?
The word auf is a two-way preposition. Because the animal is sleeping in a fixed location (answering the question where?), we use the dative case dem Nest. If she were moving or flying onto the nest (answering where to?), we would use the accusative das Nest.