Breakdown of Nach dem Essen war mein Magen schwer.
sein
to be
essen
to eat
mein
my
nach
after (in time)
schwer
heavy / severe, serious
der Magen
the stomach (the organ)
Questions & Answers about Nach dem Essen war mein Magen schwer.
Why is Essen capitalized here if it means "to eat"?
Here, Essen is used as a noun meaning "the meal" or "the food". In German, you can turn verbs into nouns (a process called nominalization) and they always become neuter nouns, like das Essen. Because it is functioning as a noun in this sentence, it must be capitalized.
The translation says my stomach "felt" heavy, but the German uses war (was). Why not use a verb for "feel"?
While you could technically say mein Magen fühlte sich schwer an (my stomach felt heavy), it is much more natural and common in everyday German to simply use sein (to be) for physical states like this. The literal German phrasing "my stomach was heavy" captures the exact same meaning.
Why is the verb war placed before the subject mein Magen?
This happens because of the "verb-second" rule in German main clauses. The prepositional phrase Nach dem Essen takes up the first block of information in the sentence. The verb war must go in the second position, which forces the subject (mein Magen) to move until right after the verb.
Why does the sentence use dem Essen instead of das Essen?
The preposition nach (after) is a "dative preposition," meaning it always forces the noun that follows it into the dative case. Since Essen is a neuter noun, the article das changes to dem.
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