Word
Das Hochwasser zerstört den Wald, demzufolge fehlt den Tieren der Lebensraum.
Meaning
The flood is destroying the forest, as a result the animals lack their habitat.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Das Hochwasser zerstört den Wald, demzufolge fehlt den Tieren der Lebensraum.
das Tier
the animal
fehlen
to be missing
der Wald
the forest
zerstören
to destroy
Questions & Answers about Das Hochwasser zerstört den Wald, demzufolge fehlt den Tieren der Lebensraum.
Why does the verb fehlt come right after demzufolge instead of the subject?
demzufolge is an adverbial connector, meaning it takes up the first position in its clause. According to the German V2 rule, the conjugated verb (fehlt) must come exactly in the second position. The rest of the clause, including the subject (der Lebensraum) and objects, follows the verb.
Why is den Tieren in the dative case here when the English translation says "the animals lack"?
The verb fehlen works backward compared to the English verb "to lack". In German, the thing that is missing is the subject in the nominative case (der Lebensraum). The person or animal experiencing the lack takes the dative case (den Tieren). Literally, the sentence means "the habitat is missing to the animals".
Could I place demzufolge later in the second clause instead of at the very beginning?
Yes, because demzufolge is an adverb, it is flexible. You could start the second clause with the dative object instead: ... den Tieren fehlt demzufolge der Lebensraum. In that case, den Tieren is in position 1, the verb fehlt stays in position 2, and the adverb moves to the middle of the sentence.
How is demzufolge different from a connector like deshalb?