Breakdown of Der Lotse macht den Landgang heute wegen der Hitze allein auf der Insel.
machen
to make, to do
heute
today
auf
on / to (down/up to a level)
die Insel
the island
die Hitze
the heat
allein
alone, on one's own
wegen
because of
der Landgang
the shore excursion
der Lotse
the maritime pilot
Questions & Answers about Der Lotse macht den Landgang heute wegen der Hitze allein auf der Insel.
How does this sentence demonstrate the TeKaMoLo rule?
The adverbials in the middle of the sentence follow the strict order of Time (Temporal), Cause (Kausal), Manner (Modal), and Place (Lokal). We have heute for time, followed by wegen der Hitze for cause, then allein for manner, and finally auf der Insel for place.
Why does the accusative object den Landgang come before all the adverbials?
Because den Landgang is a definite object (indicated by the definite article den). In German, definite accusative objects usually appear before the TeKaMoLo adverbial phrases. If it were an indefinite object like einen Landgang, it would typically be placed at the end of the sentence, after all the adverbials.
If I want to emphasize that he is doing this because of the heat, how does the word order change?
You can move the causal phrase to the first position (the Vorfeld) right before the verb. The sentence then becomes: Wegen der Hitze macht der Lotse den Landgang heute allein auf der Insel. The remaining adverbials in the middle of the sentence still follow the Te-Mo-Lo order.
Why is der Hitze used after wegen?
The preposition wegen requires the genitive case in standard German, so we use der Hitze (the genitive form of die Hitze). In informal spoken German, you might hear wegen used with the dative case, but for feminine nouns like Hitze, the dative and genitive forms happen to look exactly the same.
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