Breakdown of Wir können das Gebäude aus Stahl nicht finanzieren.
aus
from / out of (made of)
wir
we
nicht
not
können
can / to be able to
das Gebäude
the building
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
finanzieren
to finance
der Stahl
the steel
Questions & Answers about Wir können das Gebäude aus Stahl nicht finanzieren.
How would we rewrite this sentence to use an extended participle attribute, as covered in this lesson?
You would need to introduce a past participle like gebaut (built) and place the modifying phrase between the article and the noun: Wir können das aus Stahl gebaute Gebäude nicht finanzieren. (We cannot finance the building built out of steel). The current sentence takes a simpler approach by just putting the prepositional phrase aus Stahl directly after the noun.
Instead of saying das Gebäude aus Stahl, could I use an adjective for "steel"?
Yes, you can use the material adjective stählern (made of steel) and say das stählerne Gebäude. However, using aus + [Material] is much more common in everyday modern German.
Why is nicht placed right before finanzieren instead of earlier in the sentence?
When negating the main action of a sentence (in this case, the ability to finance), nicht moves as far to the end of the clause as possible, resting just before the infinitive verb. If you put nicht before das Gebäude, it would specifically negate the building, implying you want to finance something else instead.
Why do we use aus to mean "made of"?
The preposition aus (literally "out of") is the standard German way to express what material an object is composed of. You usually don't need a past participle like "made" for this structure to make sense; das Gebäude aus Stahl is the natural way to say "the building made of steel".
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