Breakdown of Sobald der Regen aufhört, gehen wir endlich in den Park.
in
in
wir
we
der Park
the park
der Regen
the rain
gehen
to go
aufhören
to stop (doing something)
sobald
as soon as
endlich
at last
Questions & Answers about Sobald der Regen aufhört, gehen wir endlich in den Park.
How does the word sobald affect the word order in the first half of the sentence?
Sobald (as soon as) is a subordinating conjunction. This means it introduces a dependent clause and forces the conjugated verb for that clause, aufhört, all the way to the end before the comma.
The verb is aufhören (to stop), which is separable. Why isn't it split up into hört ... auf here?
In a normal main clause, you would split it (for example: Der Regen hört auf). But because sobald pushes the conjugated verb to the very end of the clause, the two parts of the separable verb crash back together into a single word: aufhört.
Why does the second part of the sentence start with gehen wir instead of wir gehen?
In German, the conjugated verb in a main clause must be in the second "position". The entire sobald clause acts as block number one. Therefore, the verb gehen must come immediately after the comma to take position two, followed by the subject wir.
Why do we use the accusative in den Park instead of the dative in dem Park?
The preposition in is a two-way preposition. Because we are talking about movement toward a destination (we are going to the park), it takes the accusative case. If we were already hanging out inside the park (location without movement to a new place), we would use the dative in dem Park (or im Park).
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