Breakdown of Mangels trockenen Brennholzes haben wir abends keine Wärme.
haben
to have
kein
no, not any
wir
we
abends
in the evening
trocken
dry
mangels
for lack of
das Brennholz
the firewood
die Wärme
the warmth
Questions & Answers about Mangels trockenen Brennholzes haben wir abends keine Wärme.
Since mangels is a preposition, what case is it triggering here?
Mangels is an advanced preposition meaning "for lack of" or "wanting", and it requires the genitive case. You can see this in action on the noun Brennholzes (from the neuter noun das Brennholz), which takes the genitive -es ending.
There is no article before the adjective. Shouldn't it be trockenes to show the neuter genitive case?
You might expect trockenes, but this is a specific exception in German adjective endings! When a masculine or neuter noun takes a strong genitive ending itself (like the -es on Brennholzes), the adjective in front of it changes to -en instead of -es. This happens simply to avoid a repetitive, clunky "es-es" sound.
Why does the verb haben come before the subject wir in this sentence?
The entire prepositional phrase Mangels trockenen Brennholzes acts as a single chunk of information occupying the first position in the sentence. Because German strictly follows the V2 (verb-second) rule, the conjugated verb haben must stay in the second position, pushing the subject wir to position three.
Why is abends lowercase here?
While it comes from the capitalized noun der Abend (the evening), abends is an adverb meaning "in the evening" or "evenings". Time expressions formed by adding an -s (like morgens, mittags, or nachts) become adverbs and are always written in lowercase.
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