Word
Der Kunde bleibt sitzen und hört die Nadel surren.
Meaning
The customer stays seated and hears the needle buzzing.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der Kunde bleibt sitzen und hört die Nadel surren.
und
and
hören
to hear / to listen
bleiben
to stay
sitzen
to sit
Questions & Answers about Der Kunde bleibt sitzen und hört die Nadel surren.
Why do we use the infinitive sitzen instead of a word for "seated" or "sitting"?
In English, we say "stays seated" (a past participle) or "keeps sitting" (an -ing form). But in German, the verb bleiben (to stay/remain) specifically pairs with a bare infinitive. So "to stay seated" is always sitzen bleiben (literally: "to stay to sit").
Why isn't there a zu before surren?
Normally, when you link two verbs, the second one requires zu (like the English "to"). However, perception verbs like hören (to hear) and sehen (to see) are exceptions. When you hear or see an action happening, you use the bare infinitive of that action without zu.
In the phrase hört die Nadel surren, what case is die Nadel?
It is in the accusative case. With these perception verbs, the thing you are observing acts as the direct object. The structure is: hören + [accusative object] + [infinitive]. Even though the needle is doing the buzzing, grammatically it is the direct object of what the customer hears.
How would the word order change if this whole sentence followed weil?
If you turn this into a subordinate clause with weil (because), the conjugated verbs (bleibt and hört) are kicked to the very end of their respective clauses, directly after their infinitives. It would look like this: ... weil der Kunde sitzen bleibt und die Nadel surren hört.