Word
Tief atmend, formt er den groben Marmor.
Meaning
Breathing deeply, he shapes the rough marble.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Tief atmend, formt er den groben Marmor.
er
he
atmen
to breathe
tief
deeply
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
Questions & Answers about Tief atmend, formt er den groben Marmor.
Why doesn't atmend take an ending here?
Because it is part of a free participle clause acting as an adverb, describing how he shapes the marble. Unlike adjectives placed directly before a noun, participles used adverbially do not take declension endings.
Why does the main clause start with the verb formt instead of the subject er?
The participle phrase Tief atmend occupies the first position in the entire sentence. In German, the conjugated verb must stay in the second position, so formt comes right after the comma, pushing the subject er into the third position.
How does this participle clause act as an adverbial clause equivalent?
The present participle atmend shows that the breathing happens at the exact same time as the shaping. It is an elegant, shortened equivalent of a full temporal clause using während (while), meaning you could rewrite this as Während er tief atmet, formt er den groben Marmor.
As a quick refresher, why does the adjective in den groben Marmor end in -en?
Marmor (marble) is a masculine noun, and here it is the direct object in the accusative case. Because it follows the accusative definite article den, the adjective takes the weak declension ending -en.