Der Spielzug bewegt die Spielfigur vorwärts.

The move moves the playing piece forwards.

Breakdown of Der Spielzug bewegt die Spielfigur vorwärts.

• bewegen: to move
• vorwärts: forwards
• die Spielfigur: the playing piece
• der Spielzug: the turn; move in a game

Questions & Answers about Der Spielzug bewegt die Spielfigur vorwärts.

Why does the sentence use der Spielzug but die Spielfigur?

Because the two nouns have different grammatical genders:

• der Spielzug is masculine
• die Spielfigur is feminine

In German, every noun has a grammatical gender, and the article has to match it.

In this sentence:

• der Spielzug = the subject
• die Spielfigur = the object

A useful extra point: die can be both:

• feminine nominative
• feminine accusative

So die Spielfigur looks the same in both cases. You recognize it as the object mainly from the sentence structure and meaning.

How do I know which word is the subject and which is the object?

The subject is der Spielzug, and the object is die Spielfigur.

A native English speaker often asks this because English relies heavily on word order, while German also uses case.

Here, several clues help:

1. The verb form is bewegt, which is third-person singular.
   That matches der Spielzug = it moves.

2. Der Spielzug is in the nominative case, which is the usual case for the subject.

3. Die Spielfigur is the thing being moved, so it is the direct object in the accusative.

So the structure is:

• Der Spielzug = subject
• bewegt = verb
• die Spielfigur = direct object
• vorwärts = adverb