Ich schneide die Tomaten und lege sie auf den Teller.

I slice the tomatoes and put them on the plate.

Breakdown of Ich schneide die Tomaten und lege sie auf den Teller.

• und: and
• ich: I
• auf: on
• der Teller: the plate
• legen: to put
• sie: them
• die Tomate: the tomato
• schneiden: to slice

Questions & Answers about Ich schneide die Tomaten und lege sie auf den Teller.

Why do we use die before Tomaten instead of den?

“Tomaten” is plural. In German the definite article for plural nouns is die in both the nominative and the accusative. den is only the accusative form of the masculine singular article (for der).

How do you conjugate schneiden for ich?

schneiden is a regular verb. You drop the infinitive ending -en and add -e for the first person singular:
• ich schneide
• du schneidest
• er/sie/es schneidet

Why is there no comma before und?

In German you generally do not put a comma before coordinating conjunctions like und when they connect two main clauses. Commas only appear before und if you have parenthetical or more complex subclauses.

Why is the subject ich omitted in the second clause (“lege sie auf den Teller”)?

When two main clauses share the same subject, German allows you to drop the repeated pronoun in the second clause because it’s clear you’re still talking about ich. You could include it (“und ich lege sie auf den Teller”), but it’s more natural to leave it out.

What does sie refer to, and which case is it?

sie here is a 3rd-person plural pronoun replacing die Tomaten. It’s used in the accusative case because legen is a transitive verb that takes a direct object (what you lay down).

Why is it auf den Teller and not auf dem Teller?

The preposition auf can govern either dative (location) or accusative (direction).
• auf dem Teller (dative) means “on the plate” (where something already is).
• auf den Teller (accusative) means “onto the plate” (movement or placement onto). Here you’re placing the tomatoes onto the plate, so you use accusative.

Why does der Teller become den Teller in the accusative?

Teller is a masculine noun. In the accusative singular, the masculine definite article changes from der to den.

Why does lege come immediately after und and before sie?

Coordinating conjunctions like und don’t count toward the “verb-second” (V2) rule in German. Each main clause must have the finite verb in second position. So the second clause is effectively:

1. [und]
2. lege (verb)
3. sie (object) …

Could you use a different verb, like stellen, instead of legen?

The choice of verb depends on the orientation of the object:
• legen = to lay something flat (ideal for tomato slices)
• stellen = to place something upright
• setzen = to set or seat
Because tomato slices lie flat on a plate, legen is the correct choice; stellen would suggest standing them on end.