Word
Der Virus ist gefährlich und zerstört die Daten.
Meaning
The virus is dangerous and destroys the data.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Der Virus ist gefährlich und zerstört die Daten.
sein
to be
und
and
gefährlich
dangerous
zerstören
to destroy
Questions & Answers about Der Virus ist gefährlich und zerstört die Daten.
Wait, isn't Virus a neuter noun (das Virus)? Why does it say der Virus here?
Good catch! In medical and scientific contexts, it is neuter (das Virus). However, in everyday German and especially in computing (like a computer virus), Virus is usually masculine (der Virus). Since this sentence talks about destroying data, it is a computer virus, making der perfectly natural here.
Why is the verb zerstört right after und? Shouldn't there be a subject?
Und is a coordinating conjunction that doesn't take up a numbered position in the sentence (it sits in position 0). Because the subject of the second part is the exact same as the first (der Virus), you can just drop it to avoid repetition. The verb zerstört then acts as the second action for that same subject.
How would the word order work if we used this lesson's connector, sonst (otherwise), to continue a thought about this virus?
Unlike und (position 0), sonst is an adverbial connector that takes position 1. If you added a warning like "otherwise it destroys the data", it would be: "..., sonst zerstört er die Daten." The verb zerstört must take position 2, right after sonst, pushing the pronoun subject (er) to position 3.
Is die Daten singular or plural here?