Breakdown of Das Gesundheitsamt kontrolliert, ob alles vorschriftsmäßig ist.
sein
to be
alles
everything
ob
whether / if
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
kontrollieren
to inspect
das Gesundheitsamt
the health department
vorschriftsmäßig
according to regulations
Questions & Answers about Das Gesundheitsamt kontrolliert, ob alles vorschriftsmäßig ist.
Why is ob used here instead of wenn? Both can mean 'if' in English.
You use ob for indirect yes/no questions or uncertainty, which translates perfectly to 'whether'. The health department is checking 'whether' things are correct. You use wenn for conditional 'if' statements (if X happens, then Y) or temporal events (whenever X happens).
Since we are learning about shortened clauses (Verkürzte Nebensätze), can we drop ist here and just write '..., ob alles vorschriftsmäßig'?
In standard German, no. You generally need to keep the verb when there is an explicit subject like alles in the clause. Shortened clauses usually omit both the subject and the verb together, typically in fixed phrases like wenn nötig (if necessary), where the dropped subject is just a generic 'it'.
How exactly does the suffix -mäßig work in vorschriftsmäßig?
The suffix -mäßig is extremely useful at the B2 level. It attaches to nouns to mean 'in accordance with' or 'in terms of'. Here, it attaches to die Vorschrift (regulation) with a connecting -s- to mean 'according to regulations'. Another common example is routinemäßig (routinely).
Why does Gesundheitsamt have an -s- in the middle?
The -s- is a Fugenlaut (linking sound) used to glue the two nouns Gesundheit (health) and Amt (office/department) together. Words ending in -heit, -keit, -ung, and -ion almost always take an -s- when they form the first part of a compound noun.
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