Breakdown of In der ersten Folge geht es um ein großes Drama.
ein
a, an (eine)
es
it
groß
big / tall
in
in
erste
first (adjective)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
es geht um
to be about
um
about (concerning)
die Folge
the episode
das Drama
the drama
Questions & Answers about In der ersten Folge geht es um ein großes Drama.
Why do we use geht es um instead of literally translating "it is about"?
In German, the fixed idiom for "it is about" or "the topic is" is es geht um. It uses the impersonal subject es (it), and the preposition um always requires the accusative case for the topic that follows.
Why is the subject es in the middle of the sentence instead of at the start?
German strictly follows the verb-second rule. Because the sentence starts with the prepositional phrase In der ersten Folge (position 1), the verb geht must take position 2. This pushes the subject es to position 3, right after the verb.
Why does großes have an -es ending?
The phrase es geht um forces the following noun into the accusative case. Drama is a neuter noun (das Drama). After the indefinite article ein (which has no ending here), the adjective must show the neuter gender by taking the strong ending -es.
If Folge is feminine (die Folge), why does it say der ersten Folge?
The preposition in is a two-way preposition. Because we are talking about a fixed location or context (inside the episode) rather than a movement into it, it takes the dative case. In the dative case, the feminine article die changes to der, and the adjective erste gets the -en ending.
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