Breakdown of Diese Ruhestörung, die kommt nur von dem lauten Bass.
kommen
to come
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
von
from, of / by (agent in passive clauses)
laut
loud, loudly
nur
only
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Bass
the bass
die Ruhestörung
the disturbance of the peace
Questions & Answers about Diese Ruhestörung, die kommt nur von dem lauten Bass.
Why is there a comma after Diese Ruhestörung followed by die, instead of just saying Diese Ruhestörung kommt...?
This is a spoken German structure called left dislocation (Linksverschiebung). You pull the main topic to the very front to emphasize it (Diese Ruhestörung), pause slightly, and then refer back to it with a pronoun (die) to start the actual main clause. It sounds very natural and conversational.
Why use the pronoun die here instead of sie?
When resuming a left-dislocated noun, spoken German heavily prefers a demonstrative pronoun (der, die, das) over a standard personal pronoun (er, sie, es). Because Ruhestörung is feminine, we use die. It acts as a strong pointing word, similar to saying 'that one' in English.
Doesn't the phrase Diese Ruhestörung count as position 1? Why doesn't the verb kommt come immediately after the comma?
A left-dislocated phrase sits entirely outside the core sentence structure. The actual main clause starts after the comma with the pronoun die, which takes up Position 1. Therefore, the verb kommt correctly sits in Position 2 of the main clause.
Since the preposition von requires the dative case, why does the adjective end in -en (lauten) instead of -em?
The preposition von forces the masculine noun Bass into the dative case, giving us the definite article dem. Because dem already strongly signals the dative case, the adjective doesn't need to do the heavy lifting and just takes the weak ending -en, resulting in von dem lauten Bass.
Learn Diese Ruhestörung, die kommt nur von dem lauten Bass and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free