Die Diät dauert zwei Wochen.

Because Diät is a feminine noun in German, so its basic article is die.

German nouns have grammatical gender:

• der = masculine
• die = feminine
• das = neuter

So you simply learn the noun together with its article:

• die Diät = diet

The gender here is grammatical, not logical. A Diät is not “female”; it just belongs to the feminine noun class.

Usually, yes. Die Diät means diet, especially in the sense of a controlled eating plan, often for health or weight loss.

A useful nuance:

• Diät often sounds a bit more like a special diet or slimming diet
• Ernährung is broader and means nutrition or eating habits

So:

• Ich mache eine Diät. = I’m on a diet.
• Meine Ernährung ist gesund. = My diet/eating habits are healthy.

Dauert is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb dauern, which means to last or to take (time).

Conjugation in the present:

• ich dauere (rarely used this way in practice)
• du dauerst
• er/sie/es dauert
• wir dauern
• ihr dauert
• sie/Sie dauern

In this sentence, the subject is die Diät, which is singular, so the verb is:

• Die Diät dauert ...

Because German main clauses normally follow the V2 rule: the finite verb comes in the second position.

Here the sentence is:

• Die Diät | dauert | zwei Wochen

So:

1. Die Diät = first element
2. dauert = finite verb in second position
3. zwei Wochen = the rest of the sentence

This is one of the most important word-order rules in German.

German often uses the accusative of duration with no preposition to show how long something lasts.

So:

• Die Diät dauert zwei Wochen.
• Der Film dauert zwei Stunden.
• Der Kurs dauert drei Monate.

This is very natural in German.

You can use für in some contexts, but it changes the structure and often the meaning slightly:

• Ich gehe für zwei Wochen nach Berlin. = I’m going to Berlin for two weeks
• Die Diät dauert zwei Wochen. = The diet lasts two weeks

With dauern, the version without a preposition is the standard pattern.

It is accusative, because German often uses the accusative to express duration of time.

So in this sentence:

• Die Diät = subject, nominative
• zwei Wochen = duration, accusative

This is sometimes called the accusative of time or accusative of duration.

You can compare:

• Der Urlaub dauert eine Woche.
• Die Reise dauert einen Monat.
• Das Meeting dauert zwei Stunden.

Notice that time expressions answering how long? are often accusative in German.

Because it is plural after zwei.

The singular is:

• die Woche = the week

The plural is:

• die Wochen = the weeks

So:

• eine Woche = one week
• zwei Wochen = two weeks

This is just the normal plural form of Woche.

Because after a number, German usually does not use an article unless there is a special reason.

So you normally say:

• eine Woche
• zwei Wochen
• drei Monate
• vier Tage

Not:

• die zwei Wochen unless you mean something like those two weeks or the two weeks we already know about

So in this sentence, zwei Wochen is just a normal indefinite time expression: two weeks.

Yes. Dauert is present tense, but German often uses the present tense to talk about the future, especially when the context makes the time clear.

So this sentence can mean:

• the diet lasts two weeks
• the diet will last two weeks

German does this very often:

• Der Kurs beginnt morgen. = The course begins tomorrow.
• Ich fahre nächste Woche nach Hamburg. = I’m going to Hamburg next week.

If needed, German can also use werden, but it is often unnecessary.

Diät is pronounced roughly like dee-ET.

A few pronunciation notes:

• Di- sounds like dee
• ä here sounds a bit like the e in bet, but stressed
• the stress is on the second syllable: Di-ÄT

So:

• Diät → dee-ET

Also notice the two dots in ä. That is an umlaut, and it changes the vowel sound.

Dauert is pronounced roughly DOW-ert.

Helpful breakdown:

• dau sounds like dow in cow
• -ert is softer, something like ert

So:

• dauert ≈ DOW-ert

In normal speech, some speakers may make it sound a little smoother or quicker, but that approximation is good for learners.

Not normally in this context.

For how long something lasts, dauern is the standard verb:

• Die Diät dauert zwei Wochen.

The verb gehen can sometimes be used colloquially with time in certain expressions, but it is not the normal choice here.

So for learners, the safest pattern is:

• etwas dauert + time period

Examples:

• Der Film dauert zwei Stunden.
• Die Sitzung dauert eine Stunde.
• Die Diät dauert zwei Wochen.

Yes, you can, but then the verb must still stay in second position.

So you can say:

• Zwei Wochen dauert die Diät.

This is grammatically correct, but it sounds more marked because you are emphasizing the duration.

The neutral, most natural version is:

• Die Diät dauert zwei Wochen.

This is a good example of the V2 rule again:

• Zwei Wochen | dauert | die Diät