Breakdown of Dank des neuen Lacks glänzt das Auto in der Sonne.
in
in
das Auto
the car
neu
new
die Sonne
the sun
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
dank
thanks to
der Lack
the paintwork
glänzen
to shine (reflect light)
Questions & Answers about Dank des neuen Lacks glänzt das Auto in der Sonne.
Why does dank take the Genitive case here (des neuen Lacks), and can it take the Dative?
The preposition dank is used to express a positive cause. In modern German, it is often followed by the Genitive case, especially in writing. However, using the Dative case (dank dem neuen Lack) is also completely correct and is actually more common in everyday spoken German.
Why does the adjective neu end in -en (neuen)?
Because it follows the masculine Genitive article des. After any definite article in the Genitive, Dative, or Plural, adjectives always take the weak ending -en.
Why is an -s added to the noun to make Lacks?
Lack is a masculine noun (der Lack). In the Genitive case, masculine and neuter nouns usually add an -s or -es to the end of the word. Since Lack is a single syllable, both Lacks and Lackes are grammatically correct, though Lacks is much more common here.
Why is the verb glänzt placed before the subject das Auto?
German uses V2 (verb-second) word order in main clauses. Because the entire prepositional phrase Dank des neuen Lacks occupies the first position in the sentence, the conjugated verb glänzt must take the second position. This pushes the subject das Auto to the third position.
As a quick refresher, why do we say in der Sonne instead of in die Sonne?
The word in is a two-way preposition. It takes the Accusative case for movement toward a destination, but the Dative case for a fixed location or state. Since the car is simply sitting and shining in a location rather than moving into the sun, we use the Dative feminine article der.
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