Breakdown of Sie legen pausenlos tausend Kilometer zurück.
sie
they
der Kilometer
the kilometer
tausend
thousand
zurücklegen
to cover (a distance)
Questions & Answers about Sie legen pausenlos tausend Kilometer zurück.
Why is tausend Kilometer in the accusative case here?
Even though it isn't a direct object, tausend Kilometer is an adverbial accusative of distance. German uses the accusative case without any prepositions to state specific distances, durations, and times.
Since tausend Kilometer is plural, why doesn't Kilometer have a plural ending?
Where does the zurück at the end of the sentence come from?
It belongs to the separable verb zurücklegen, which means to cover a distance. Because this is a main clause in the present tense, the conjugated part legen takes the second position, and the prefix zurück gets pushed to the very end.
How is the word pausenlos formed?
It is built from the noun die Pause (break or pause) and the suffix -los (-less). Just like in English, this suffix means 'without'. Notice the connecting -n- that gets added between the root word and the suffix.