Breakdown of Er geht barfuß und murmelnd zurück in sein Bett.
er
he
und
and
in
in
sein
his
gehen
to go
das Bett
the bed
zurück
back (in return, backwards)
barfuß
barefoot
murmeln
to mumble
Questions & Answers about Er geht barfuß und murmelnd zurück in sein Bett.
How is murmelnd formed, and what role does it play in this sentence?
murmelnd is the Present Participle (Partizip I) of the verb murmeln (to mumble). In German, you form this simply by adding -d to the infinitive of a verb. Here, it is used as an adverb of manner: it describes how the action of walking is happening.
Why doesn't murmelnd have a declension ending, like murmelnder or murmelndes?
Because it is acting as an adverb describing the verb geht, rather than an adjective describing a noun. When the Present Participle is used as an adverb, it stays in its basic -d form and takes no endings. If it were modifying a noun directly (like 'the mumbling man'), it would need an adjective ending (der murmelnde Mann).
Where does the word zurück come from, and why is it placed there?
It is the prefix of the separable verb zurückgehen (to go back). In a standard German main clause, the conjugated part of the verb (geht) takes the second position, and the separable prefix (zurück) gets pushed toward the end of the clause, right after the adverbs barfuß und murmelnd.
Why do we use the accusative case for in sein Bett instead of the dative in seinem Bett?
The word in is a two-way preposition. It takes the accusative case when it describes a movement or change of location toward a destination (answering 'where to?'). Since he is actively moving into the bed, we use the accusative sein Bett. If he were already lying in the bed, it would answer 'where?' and take the dative case (in seinem Bett).
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