Breakdown of Wir warten eine Sekunde, bevor wir gehen.
wir
we
gehen
to go
bevor
before
warten
to wait
die Sekunde
the second
eins
one
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Questions & Answers about Wir warten eine Sekunde, bevor wir gehen.
Why is there no auf after warten in this sentence?
Because warten can be used two ways in German.
- To express waiting for someone or something, you need warten auf + accusative (e.g., warten auf den Bus).
- To express waiting a certain duration, you simply use warten + duration in the accusative (e.g., eine Sekunde warten). In our sentence we’re talking about a duration, so no auf is needed.
Why is eine Sekunde in the accusative case?
In German, when you indicate the length of time you wait, see, or do something, you use the accusative case to mark that duration.
- eine Sekunde is the direct object showing how long we wait.
Could I say eine Sekunde lang instead of just eine Sekunde?
Yes. Adding lang explicitly marks it as a period of time, so eine Sekunde lang means for one second.
- Without lang, Germans still understand it as a duration.
- With lang, it can sound a bit more formal or clear about it being a time span.
Why is there a comma before bevor?
Because bevor introduces a subordinate (dependent) clause. German rules require a comma when a main clause is followed by any subordinate clause.
- Main clause: Wir warten eine Sekunde
- Subordinate clause: bevor wir gehen
- Comma: …Sekunde, bevor wir gehen.
Why does gehen come at the end of the subordinate clause?
German subordinate clauses use verb-final word order. As soon as you see a subordinating conjunction like bevor, the conjugated verb moves to the very end of that clause.
What’s the difference between bevor and bis in temporal contexts?
- bevor means before and introduces an event that happens first, then something else follows (e.g., bevor wir gehen = before we leave).
- bis means until and expresses the endpoint of a duration (e.g., Wir warten bis fünf Uhr = We’ll wait until five o’clock).
They are not interchangeable: you use bevor to link two actions in sequence, and bis to mark how long something continues up to a point in time.
Could I rephrase this as two main clauses, like Wir warten eine Sekunde, dann gehen wir?
Yes, that’s perfectly fine. You’d then have two main clauses joined by a comma (or by dann with a semicolon/period):
- Wir warten eine Sekunde, dann gehen wir.
This is slightly more colloquial and emphatic, separating the wait and the departure more clearly.
Can I swap Sekunde for Moment here?
Absolutely. Moment is more colloquial and often used:
- Wir warten einen Moment, bevor wir gehen.
Note the case change to einen Moment (masculine accusative). The overall meaning stays the same, but Moment can feel a bit less exact than Sekunde.