Der Zeuge schweigt.

Because Zeuge is a masculine noun in German. In the nominative singular (the form used for the subject of the sentence), masculine nouns take der.

So here:

• der = nominative singular masculine article
• Zeuge = the subject

If the noun were feminine, you would expect die. If it were neuter, you would expect das.

In German, all nouns are capitalized, not just proper names.

So:

• Zeuge is a noun, so it is capitalized.
• schweigt is a verb, so it is not capitalized.
• Der is capitalized here only because it is the first word of the sentence.

This is one of the most noticeable spelling differences between German and English.

German noun gender is not always predictable from the ending. A noun can be masculine even if it ends in -e.

In fact, Zeuge belongs to a special group called weak masculine nouns (also called n-nouns). These nouns often add -n or -en in most cases other than the nominative singular.

For Zeuge, the forms are:

• nominative: der Zeuge
• accusative: den Zeugen
• dative: dem Zeugen
• genitive: des Zeugen

Plural:

• die Zeugen

So der Zeuge is the special nominative singular form.

Schweigt is the 3rd person singular present tense form of the verb schweigen.

The present-tense forms are:

• ich schweige
• du schweigst
• er / sie / es schweigt
• wir schweigen
• ihr schweigt
• sie / Sie schweigen

Because der Zeuge is a singular subject, German uses the er/sie/es form: schweigt.

Because German main clauses normally follow the verb-second rule.

In Der Zeuge schweigt:

1. Der Zeuge = first element
2. schweigt = second element

That is the standard word order for a simple statement.

This is similar to normal English word order here, but in German the verb-second rule is a very important pattern even when something other than the subject comes first.

For example:

• Heute schweigt der Zeuge.

Here Heute is first, and the verb schweigt still stays in second position.

German present tense can cover several meanings that English often separates.

So schweigt can be understood in context as things like:

• is silent
• keeps silent
• remains silent
• is keeping silent

German does not need a separate continuous form like English is keeping silent. The exact English wording depends on context.

Normally, no. In standard German, a singular countable noun like Zeuge usually needs an article or another determiner.

So:

• Der Zeuge schweigt. = normal
• Ein Zeuge schweigt. = also normal
• Zeuge schweigt. = not normal as a standard full sentence

German uses articles more regularly than English in many cases, so learners often need to get used to that.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Zeuge ≈ TSOY-guh
• schweigt ≈ shvykt with the vowel of English eye

Helpful sound notes:

• z in German sounds like ts
• eu sounds like oy
• sch sounds like sh
• w sounds like English v
• ei sounds like English eye

So:

• Zeuge starts with ts
• schweigt starts with shv

Here, der is simply the definite article meaning the.

But in German, der can also appear in other roles, for example as a relative pronoun or sometimes as a demonstrative in certain contexts.

In this sentence, though, the simplest reading is the correct one:

• der = the

So you should understand der Zeuge as a normal noun phrase with a definite article.