Breakdown of Stört dich das Gerücht? - Nein, es ist die Tatsache, die mich stört.
sein
to be
es
it
nein
no
dich
you (singular, informal)
mich
me
stören
to disturb
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
das Gerücht
the rumor
die Tatsache
the fact
Questions & Answers about Stört dich das Gerücht? - Nein, es ist die Tatsache, die mich stört.
Why use es ist die Tatsache, die mich stört instead of just die Tatsache stört mich?
This is a cleft sentence (Spaltsatz). By splitting the sentence with es ist and pushing the rest into a relative clause, you place heavy emphasis on die Tatsache. It creates a strong contrast: it is the fact, not the rumor, that bothers me.
Why does the second clause start with die?
Here, die is a relative pronoun connecting the clause back to die Tatsache, which is a feminine noun. Since the fact is the subject of the second clause (it is doing the bothering), the pronoun must be in the nominative case, which is die.
Is the es in es ist die Tatsache a fixed phrase, or does it change for plural nouns?
The pronoun es stays the same, but the verb changes! Unlike English where we say it is the facts, German grammar requires the verb to agree with the noun following it. If it were plural, you would say es sind die Tatsachen, die mich stören.
Why do we use the accusative dich and mich with the verb stören?
The verb stören (to bother or disturb) takes a direct object in the accusative case. It is easy to mix this up with verbs like gefallen or helfen that take the dative, but stören directly impacts the person, so we use mich instead of mir.
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