Der Regen fällt langsam.

The rain falls slowly.

Breakdown of Der Regen fällt langsam.

• langsam: slowly
• der Regen: the rain
• fallen: to fall

Questions & Answers about Der Regen fällt langsam.

Why is Regen capitalized?

In German, all nouns are always written with an initial capital letter, no matter where they appear in a sentence.

Why is the article Der used before Regen, and how do I know Regen is masculine?

Every German noun has a grammatical gender (masculine, feminine or neuter). The noun Regen (“rain”) is masculine, so in the nominative singular (when it’s the subject) it takes the masculine definite article der.

What case is der Regen, and why?

It’s in the nominative case because it’s the subject of the sentence (“the one doing the action”). Subjects in German are always nominative.

What does fällt mean, and how is it related to the infinitive fallen?

fällt is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb fallen (“to fall”). So Der Regen fällt literally means “The rain falls.”

Why does the vowel change to an umlaut in fällt?

fallen is a strong verb that undergoes a vowel change in its du‑ and er/sie/es‑forms. The pattern here is:
• ich falle
• du fällst
• er/sie/es fällt

How do I know that langsam is an adverb here and not an adjective?

langsam is modifying the verb fällt (it describes how it falls), so it’s functioning as an adverb. Adjectives modify nouns and take endings; adverbs modify verbs/adjectives/other adverbs and remain in their base form.

Why is langsam placed at the end of the sentence?

German typically follows the verb‑second (V2) word order: the finite verb (fällt) must appear in slot two. Adverbials like langsam usually come after the verb (or after the verb + object).

Could I say Der Regen regnet langsam instead? Why or why not?

No. The verb regnen is impersonal and only exists with es as subject: Es regnet (“It’s raining”). You can’t make der Regen the subject of regnen. If you want to talk about actual drops falling, you use fallen as in Der Regen fällt.