Breakdown of Die letzte U-Bahn fährt um neun Uhr.
fahren
to drive
die Uhr
the clock
um
at
die U‑Bahn
the subway
Questions & Answers about Die letzte U-Bahn fährt um neun Uhr.
Why is U-Bahn capitalized and hyphenated?
In German all nouns are capitalized. U-Bahn is a shortened form of Untergrundbahn: the letter U stands for Untergrund, and Bahn remains the noun. A hyphen marks the abbreviation.
Why does the sentence use die letzte U-Bahn instead of eine letzte U-Bahn?
We use the definite article die because we refer to the last train of the day, a known specific one. Also, U-Bahn is feminine (like any noun ending in -bahn), so it takes die in the nominative.
Why does letzte end with -e and not -er or another ending?
Because it’s an attributive adjective following a definite article in the nominative feminine. After die, weak adjective endings apply: nominative feminine adjectives take -e, so letzte.
Why is the verb fährt placed in second position in the sentence?
German main clauses follow the verb‑second (V2) rule: the finite verb must occupy the second position, regardless of which element comes first.
Why do we use fahren for the subway here, rather than ?