Breakdown of Ein breiter Fluss trennt die beiden Länder.
breit
wide
der Fluss
the river
das Land
the country
beide
both
trennen
to separate (something)
Questions & Answers about Ein breiter Fluss trennt die beiden Länder.
Why do we use beiden here instead of zwei for 'the two'?
In German, die beiden (literally 'the both') is much more common and natural than die zwei when referring to a specific, known pair. English says 'the two', but German prefers to group them with beide.
Why does breit take the ending -er in ein breiter Fluss?
Fluss is masculine (der Fluss) and is the subject of the sentence (nominative case). Since the indefinite article ein has no ending to show it is masculine, the adjective must take the strong ending -er to do that job.
Why does beide change to beiden in this sentence?
The word beide behaves like a normal adjective. Because it comes right after the plural definite article die, it takes the weak plural adjective ending -n.
Could I use teilt instead of trennt to say the river divides the countries?
Trennen is the better choice because it means to keep two distinct things apart or act as a physical boundary. Teilen generally means to split a single whole into parts, or to share something.
Learn Ein breiter Fluss trennt die beiden Länder and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free