Breakdown of Der Soldat feuerte zweimal in die Luft.
in
in
zweimal
twice
die Luft
the air
der Soldat
the soldier
feuern
to fire (a weapon)
Questions & Answers about Der Soldat feuerte zweimal in die Luft.
Can the verb feuern also mean 'to fire someone from a job' like it does in English?
Yes! In colloquial German, jemanden feuern means to fire or sack an employee. In this sentence, however, it is used in its literal sense of discharging a weapon. Another related term you might see in action contexts is abfeuern (to fire off or launch).
I often mix up noun endings. Is Soldat an n-declension noun?
It is! Soldat is a 'weak' masculine noun, meaning it takes an -en ending in all cases except the nominative singular. Because the soldier is the subject here (nominative), it doesn't get the extra ending. But if the sentence were 'He hit the soldier', it would be Er traf den Soldaten.
Why do we use the accusative case for in die Luft instead of the dative in der Luft?
The word in is a two-way preposition. We use the accusative here because the action is directed toward a destination (the bullets are traveling into the air). If you used the dative (in der Luft), it would imply a fixed location, meaning the soldier himself was hovering up in the sky while firing!
Are there any common German idioms using in die Luft?
Definitely. If someone loses their temper and explodes with anger, you can say jemand geht in die Luft (literally 'to go into the air'). You will also frequently see the phrase etwas in die Luft jagen, which means to blow something up with explosives.
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