Der Bürger besucht das Museum.

to visit

Breakdown of Der Bürger besucht das Museum.

• das Museum: the museum
• der Bürger: the citizen

Questions & Answers about Der Bürger besucht das Museum.

What does Bürger mean in this sentence?

Bürger means “citizen” – a person who belongs to and lives in a particular city or state.

Why is the article der used before Bürger?

German nouns have grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter). Bürger is masculine, so its nominative singular definite article is der.

What case is der Bürger in, and how do I know?

It’s in the nominative case because it’s the subject of the sentence (the one performing the action “visits”). Subjects appear in the nominative.

Why is das the article for Museum, and what case is das Museum in?

Museum is a neuter noun; its singular definite article in both nominative and accusative is das. Here, das Museum is the direct object of besucht, so it’s in the accusative. In neuter, nominative and accusative articles look the same.

Why does besucht end with -t rather than another ending?

Besuchen is a regular (weak) verb. In the present tense, third-person singular (he/she/it), you add -t to the stem: besuch- + -t = besucht.

Why is the verb placed second in this sentence?

German main clauses follow the verb-second (V2) rule: the finite verb must occupy the second position, regardless of what comes first (subject, time expression, etc.).

Why are Bürger and Museum capitalized?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, so you always write them with an initial capital letter.

How would I say “The citizens visit the museum”?

Make Bürger plural and use the corresponding article and verb form:

• Die Bürger (plural nominative)
• besuchen (they form)
  Full sentence: Die Bürger besuchen das Museum.