Breakdown of Das Gebäude, das ist leider so hellhörig, wenn sie oben trampeln.
sein
to be
sie
they
leider
unfortunately
so
so, such (intensifier)
wenn
if / when (conditional, not a question word)
das Gebäude
the building
oben
upstairs, up there
hellhörig
poorly soundproofed
trampeln
to stomp
Questions & Answers about Das Gebäude, das ist leider so hellhörig, wenn sie oben trampeln.
Why is the word das repeated right after Das Gebäude?
This is a common feature in spoken German called left dislocation (Linksverschiebung). To heavily emphasize the topic (Das Gebäude), the speaker pulls it entirely out of the main sentence and states it first. The second das is a demonstrative pronoun (meaning "that" or "that one") which picks the topic back up and acts as the actual grammatical subject of the sentence.
Doesn't the verb have to be in the second position? Why doesn't ist come right after Das Gebäude?
The strict "verb second" (V2) rule applies to the core sentence. Because Das Gebäude was pushed outside the main clause to the left, it doesn't count as the first position of the main clause. The actual main clause starts with the pronoun das (position 1), which makes the verb ist take its correct spot in position 2.
hellhörig translates to "poorly soundproofed", but what is the literal meaning?
It combines hell (bright, clear) and a suffix related to hören (to hear). Literally, it describes a space where sounds come through "clearly." It's the standard, everyday word Germans use to complain about thin apartment walls!
Who does sie refer to in the clause wenn sie oben trampeln?
Here, sie just means "they" in a general, unspecified sense, exactly like in English ("when they stomp upstairs"). The speaker is referring to the upstairs neighbors, but there is no specific noun earlier in the sentence that sie is replacing.
Is trampeln exactly the same as the English word "trample"?
It's a cognate, but it's used much more frequently in everyday German to simply mean "stomping" or walking with very heavy footsteps. If someone walks loudly in the apartment above you, Germans will say they are am Trampeln.
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