Breakdown of Die Tage werden immer kürzer.
immer
always
kurz
shortly / short
werden
to become / to get (change of state)
der Tag
the day
Questions & Answers about Die Tage werden immer kürzer.
Why does immer mean "and shorter" here instead of "always"?
When immer is placed immediately before a comparative adjective like kürzer, it expresses the idea of "more and more" or a repeated comparative in English (like "shorter and shorter"). So immer kürzer essentially translates to "continuously shorter."
Why do we use werden instead of a form of sein (to be) for "are getting"?
In English, we use "to be" plus "getting" or "becoming" to show a continuous change of state. In German, the verb werden on its own directly means "to become" or "to get" in this sense. You do not use a helper verb like sind to express this.
Why does kürzer not have a plural ending to match the plural noun Die Tage?
In German, adjectives only take declension endings when they come directly before a noun. Because kürzer is used here as a predicate adjective (meaning it comes after the verb to describe the subject), it stays in its base comparative form without any extra endings like -e.
Why does kürzer have an umlaut when the base word kurz does not?
Many short, one-syllable German adjectives that contain the vowels a, o, or u add an umlaut when they take their comparative and superlative forms. Other common examples include alt becoming älter and groß becoming größer.
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