Word
Dass es am Wochenende regnet, ist leider absehbar.
Meaning
That it will rain on the weekend is unfortunately foreseeable.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Dass es am Wochenende regnet, ist leider absehbar.
sein
to be
es
it
leider
unfortunately
regnen
to rain
Questions & Answers about Dass es am Wochenende regnet, ist leider absehbar.
Why does the main clause start directly with the verb ist right after the comma?
In this sentence, the entire dass-clause (Dass es am Wochenende regnet) acts as the subject and takes up Position 1. Because the conjugated verb in a German main clause must sit in Position 2, ist comes immediately after the comma. There is no need for a placeholder pronoun like es (it) before the verb.
Could I flip this sentence and put the dass-clause at the end?
Yes, but you would need to add the placeholder subject es to the main clause to keep the verb in Position 2. It would look like this: Es ist leider absehbar, dass es am Wochenende regnet. Fronting the dass-clause, as our sentence does, just places more emphasis on the incoming rain.
The English translation says "will rain", so why does the German sentence use the present tense regnet?
German very frequently uses the present tense to talk about the future, as long as the context makes the timeline clear. Here, the time phrase am Wochenende (on the weekend) tells us it hasn't happened yet, so you don't need to use the future helper verb wird.
How does the word absehbar get its meaning of "foreseeable"?
It comes from the separable verb absehen (to foresee or to anticipate). Adding the suffix -bar turns a verb into an adjective describing what can be done, exactly like the English suffix "-able". So, something that is absehbar is foreseeable or predictable.