Breakdown of Der Tätowierer geht jetzt arbeiten.
jetzt
now
arbeiten
to work
gehen
to go
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
Questions & Answers about Der Tätowierer geht jetzt arbeiten.
Why is there no zu before arbeiten, since the English translation says "to work"?
This highlights the main rule of this lesson! In German, verbs of motion like gehen (to go) pair directly with a second verb to show the purpose of the motion. When they do, that second verb (arbeiten) stays in its bare infinitive form. You do not use zu before it, even though we say "to work" in English.
Why is arbeiten at the very end of the sentence instead of right after geht?
This follows the standard German bracket structure. When a sentence has a conjugated verb (geht) and an infinitive (arbeiten), the conjugated verb takes the second position, and the infinitive is kicked to the very end of the clause. Any other information, like the time adverb jetzt (now), is sandwiched between them.
If I want to say "is going to work" instead of "goes to work", how do I change the German sentence?
You don't need to change anything! German does not have a separate present continuous tense (the "-ing" form). Depending on the context, geht can mean either "goes" or "is going". Thanks to the word jetzt (now), translating it as "The tattoo artist is going to work now" is extremely natural.
Der Tätowierer looks a lot like English. Is the -er ending used the same way here?
Yes! Just like in English, German often adds -er to a verb stem to create a noun for the person performing that action. Here, the base verb is tätowieren (to tattoo), so der Tätowierer is the man who tattoos.