Breakdown of Allgemeinwissen hilft bei jedem Rateversuch.
bei
with
helfen
to help
jeder
every
das Allgemeinwissen
general knowledge
Questions & Answers about Allgemeinwissen hilft bei jedem Rateversuch.
Why is Allgemeinwissen written as one word?
Because German very often forms compound nouns by joining words together.
- allgemein = general
- Wissen = knowledge
So Allgemeinwissen literally means general knowledge.
This is completely normal in German. English often writes similar ideas as two words, but German usually combines them into one noun.
Why is there no article before Allgemeinwissen?
Here, Allgemeinwissen is being used in a general, abstract sense, like Knowledge helps or General knowledge helps in English.
German often leaves out the article with:
- abstract nouns
- uncountable nouns
- general statements
So Allgemeinwissen hilft ... means General knowledge helps ..., not The general knowledge helps ...
Why is the verb hilft and not helfen?
Because the subject, Allgemeinwissen, is singular.
The verb helfen is the infinitive. In the present tense:
- ich helfe
- du hilfst
- er/sie/es hilft
- wir helfen
- ihr helft
- sie/Sie helfen
Since Allgemeinwissen is a singular noun, German uses hilft.