Word
Wegen der Störung gab es gestern einen schlimmen Engpass.
Meaning
Because of the disruption, there was a bad bottleneck yesterday.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Wegen der Störung gab es gestern einen schlimmen Engpass.
ein
a, an (eine)
gestern
yesterday
es gibt
there is / there are
schlimm
bad / awful (severe)
Questions & Answers about Wegen der Störung gab es gestern einen schlimmen Engpass.
How would we express this same idea using a weil clause instead of wegen?
You would turn the noun phrase into a full subordinate clause, for example: Weil es eine Störung gab, gab es gestern einen schlimmen Engpass. The preposition wegen (because of) allows us to compress that causal clause into a single noun phrase.
Why does the feminine noun Störung use the article der here?
The preposition wegen requires the genitive case. In the genitive case, the feminine definite article die changes to der.
Why does the verb gab come right after Wegen der Störung?
German follows a strict verb-second rule in main clauses. The entire prepositional phrase Wegen der Störung acts as a single unit occupying the first position, so the conjugated verb gab must take the second position. The subject es is then pushed to the third position.
Why is it einen schlimmen Engpass and not ein schlimmer Engpass?