Während wir das Hosenbein abstecken, markiert er den Saum.

While we pin the trouser leg, he marks the hem.

Breakdown of Während wir das Hosenbein abstecken, markiert er den Saum.

• wir: we
• er: he
• während: while
• markieren: to mark

Questions & Answers about Während wir das Hosenbein abstecken, markiert er den Saum.

Why does the sentence start with während?

Während is a subordinating conjunction meaning while in this sentence. It introduces a subordinate clause: Während wir das Hosenbein abstecken.

Because it is a subordinating conjunction, it changes the word order in that clause: the conjugated verb goes to the end.

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Why is abstecken at the end of the first clause?

Because während creates a subordinate clause, German sends the finite verb to the end of that clause.

So instead of a main-clause pattern like:

Wir stecken das Hosenbein ab.

you get:

Während wir das Hosenbein abstecken ...

Here, abstecken appears as one full verb form at the end. In a subordinate clause, separable-prefix verbs are usually written together rather than split apart.

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Why does the second part say markiert er instead of er markiert?

This is because the whole während-clause comes first, and in German the finite verb of the main clause must come in the second position.

The first position is occupied by the entire opening clause:

Während wir das Hosenbein abstecken

So the main clause begins with the verb:

markiert er den Saum

That is normal German word order. If the main clause came first, you would say:

Er markiert den Saum, während wir das Hosenbein abstecken.

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Why is it das Hosenbein but den Saum?