Word
Der Nager hat den Fluss gestaut.
Meaning
The rodent dammed the river.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der Nager hat den Fluss gestaut.
haben
to have
der Fluss
the river
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Nager
the rodent
Questions & Answers about Der Nager hat den Fluss gestaut.
Why does stauen use a weak conjugation pattern (gestaut) in this sentence?
Because it is being used transitively here, meaning it takes a direct object (den Fluss). A key rule in German is that the transitive, causative version of a verb is almost always weak, which is why its past participle ends in -t instead of -en.
Does stauen have a strong, intransitive counterpart like other verbs in this lesson (such as liegen vs. legen)?
No, not every transitive verb has a strong intransitive twin. To make stauen intransitive (for example, to say 'the river dams up'), you simply use it reflexively: Der Fluss staut sich. It remains a weak verb in this form.
The word Nager looks like it was built from a verb. What is the root?
It is derived from the verb nagen, which means 'to gnaw' or 'to nibble.' By adding the -er suffix to the verb stem, it literally translates to 'gnawer,' which is the standard German noun for 'rodent.'
Just as a refresher, why is the river in the accusative case (den Fluss)?
Because the river is the direct object receiving the action of the verb. The rodent is the subject doing the damming, and the masculine noun der Fluss (the river) is the thing being dammed, so its article must change to den.