Breakdown of In der Praxis warten heute viele Leute.
in
in
die Leute
the people
heute
today
viel
much / a lot
warten
to wait
die Praxis
the doctor's surgery
Questions & Answers about In der Praxis warten heute viele Leute.
Why does 'Praxis' translate to 'surgery' here? Doesn't it mean 'practice'?
While Praxis can mean 'practice' (as opposed to theory), it is also the standard German word for a doctor's office or a medical clinic. In British English, this is often called a 'surgery'. If you want to talk about practicing a skill like playing an instrument, you would use the noun Übung or the verb üben.
Why is it 'In der Praxis' and not 'In die Praxis'?
The preposition in is a 'two-way' preposition. It takes the dative case when describing a fixed location (answering 'where?') and the accusative case for movement towards a destination (answering 'where to?'). Since the people are already waiting inside the office, it describes a location. Therefore, the feminine noun die Praxis changes to the dative form der Praxis.
Why is the subject 'viele Leute' at the end of the sentence instead of at the beginning?
In a German main clause, the conjugated verb must always take the second position. Because this sentence starts with the prepositional phrase In der Praxis (which counts as the first position), the verb warten must come immediately after it. This forces the subject viele Leute to move after the verb.
Why is the ending on the word 'viele' just an '-e'?
Leute (people) is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case. Because it is a plural noun without a definite article (like die) in front of it, the word viel takes the standard plural nominative ending -e, becoming viele.
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