Word
Das Leben in der Stadt wird immer teurer.
Meaning
Life in the city is getting more and more expensive.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Das Leben in der Stadt wird immer teurer.
in
in
teuer
expensive
immer
always
die Stadt
the city
Questions & Answers about Das Leben in der Stadt wird immer teurer.
Why is immer used here to mean 'more and more'?
In German, to say something is getting 'more and more' of an adjective, you use immer followed by the comparative form of that adjective. While English repeats the word 'more' or the adjective itself, German pairs immer with the comparative, making immer teurer. You should avoid saying mehr und mehr teuer because it sounds unnatural to native speakers.
Why is the verb wird used instead of a literal translation for 'is getting'?
The verb werden translates to 'to become' or 'to get' when referring to a change in condition or state. English often uses the continuous form 'is getting' for ongoing changes, but German does not have a present continuous tense. Instead, it simply uses the present tense of werden (wird) to express that city life is currently becoming more expensive.
Why do we say in der Stadt with the dative case rather than in die Stadt?
The word in is a two-way preposition. It takes the dative case when it describes a static location (answering the question 'where?' or wo?). Since 'life in the city' describes something happening within a fixed place rather than movement toward a new destination, the feminine noun die Stadt changes to its dative form der Stadt.
Notice the spelling of teurer. Why isn't it teuerer?