Sie betreiben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei.

They run a small bakery together.

Breakdown of Sie betreiben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei.

• klein: small
• gemeinsam: together
• die Bäckerei: the bakery
• sie: they
• eine: a; (feminine, accusative)
• betreiben: to run

Questions & Answers about Sie betreiben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei.

In this sentence, does Sie mean they or formal you, and how can I tell?

Written as Sie at the start of a sentence, it is ambiguous:

• sie (lowercase in the middle of a sentence) = they
• Sie (capital S anywhere) = formal you (singular or plural)

At the beginning of a sentence, Sie is always capital anyway, so you cannot tell from spelling alone whether it’s they or you (formal). Only context would make it clear:

• Talking about third persons: Sie betreiben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei. → They run a small bakery together.
• Talking to people formally: Sie betreiben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei. → You (formal, more than one person) run a small bakery together.

Without context, both are grammatically possible.

Why do we use betreiben here instead of a more basic verb like haben or machen?

Betreiben means to run / to operate (a business, an institution, a website, etc.). It is the natural, idiomatic verb for running a business:

• eine Firma betreiben – to run a company
• eine Bar betreiben – to run a bar
• einen YouTube-Kanal betreiben – to run a YouTube channel

Using other verbs would change the nuance:

• eine Bäckerei haben – to have / own a bakery (focus on possession)
• eine Bäckerei führen – to manage a bakery (focus on leading, managing)
• eine Bäckerei machen – sounds wrong/unnatural here

So betreiben is chosen because the sentence talks about operating the bakery as a business.

What exactly does gemeinsam mean, and how is it different from zusammen?

Both gemeinsam and zusammen can often be translated as together, but there is a nuance:

• zusammen is very general: just together, in the same place/time.
• gemeinsam emphasizes joint activity or shared responsibility: doing something together as a team.

In Sie betreiben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei, gemeinsam stresses that they jointly run the business; they share the work and responsibility. You could also say:

• Sie betreiben zusammen eine kleine Bäckerei.

This is also correct and natural, but gemeinsam can sound slightly more formal or emphasize cooperation a bit more.

Why is the word order Sie betreiben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei and not, for example, Sie gemeinsam betreiben eine kleine Bäckerei?

In a normal main clause, the verb has to be in second position:

1. Sie – first element (subject)
2. betreiben – finite verb (must be in second position)
3. The rest (adverbs, objects, etc.) – here: gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei

So: Sie betreiben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei is the standard order.

Sie gemeinsam betreiben eine kleine Bäckerei is wrong because:

• betreiben (the finite verb) is no longer in the second position.

You can move gemeinsam around inside the “middle field”, for example:

• Sie betreiben eine kleine Bäckerei gemeinsam.
• Sie betreiben eine kleine gemeinsame Bäckerei. (slightly different nuance: gemeinsame now directly describes the bakery)

But the verb betreiben must remain in second position in such main clauses.

What case is eine kleine Bäckerei, and how do we know?

Eine kleine Bäckerei is in the accusative singular.

• The verb betreiben is a transitive verb, which takes a direct object in the accusative case (what is being operated? → the bakery).
• Feminine noun Bäckerei uses the same form in nominative and accusative singular, so the noun itself doesn’t change shape.
• The article eine and the adjective kleine show it is feminine singular; in this position feminine nominative and feminine accusative look the same:
  
  • nominative: eine kleine Bäckerei
  • accusative: eine kleine Bäckerei

We identify it as accusative here because of its function: it’s the direct object of betreiben.

Why is kleine ending in -e here? How is that adjective ending formed?

Kleine is the adjective klein declined after the indefinite article eine before a feminine noun in the singular.

Pattern: feminine singular, nominative or accusative, with eine → the adjective gets -e.

So you get:

• eine kleine Bäckerei – a small bakery
• die kleine Bäckerei – the small bakery
• meine kleine Bäckerei – my small bakery

All of these have -e on the adjective because they are feminine singular in nominative/accusative, and the article (or possessive) already shows the case and gender.

Why is Bäckerei feminine, and is there a pattern for nouns like this?

Bäckerei is die Bäckerei (feminine). There is a helpful pattern:

• Many nouns ending in -ei are feminine:
  
  • die Bäckerei (bakery)
  • die Konditorei (pastry shop)
  • die Metzgerei (butcher’s shop)
  • die Polizei (police)
  • die Bäckerei fits this pattern.

So when you see a noun ending in -ei, you can usually assume it is feminine (die).

Is betreiben a separable verb? Why doesn’t anything split off to the end of the sentence?

Betreiben is not a separable verb.

• It has the prefix be-, which belongs to a group of inseparable prefixes in German: be-, ge-, er-, ver-, zer-, ent-, emp-, miss-.
• Verbs with these prefixes do not split in main clauses.

Compare:

• separable: aufmachen → Ich mache die Bäckerei auf. (prefix auf goes to the end)
• inseparable: betreiben → Sie betreiben die Bäckerei. (nothing separates)

So betreiben always stays together: ich betreibe, du betreibst, sie betreiben, etc.

Could I also say Sie haben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei? Is that different?

Yes, Sie haben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei is grammatically correct, but the meaning is slightly different:

• Sie betreiben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei.
  → They run / operate a small bakery together (focus on the activity of operating it).

• Sie haben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei.
  → They have / own a small bakery together (focus on joint ownership or possession).

In everyday speech, people might use haben in a looser way that comes close to run, but if you want to sound precise and natural about running a business, betreiben (or führen) is better.

Can I drop the article and say Sie betreiben gemeinsam kleine Bäckerei, like English sometimes drops a?

No, not in this context. In German:

• A singular, countable noun like Bäckerei normally needs an article (or another determiner) unless it’s part of a special set expression.

So you normally say:

• Sie betreiben gemeinsam eine kleine Bäckerei. – correct
• Sie betreiben gemeinsam kleine Bäckerei. – sounds wrong/unnatural

You can drop the article in the plural:

• Sie betreiben gemeinsam kleine Bäckereien. – They run small bakeries together.

But for a single bakery, you need eine (or another appropriate article).

How would the sentence change if they run several small bakeries instead of just one?

You would make Bäckerei plural and adjust the rest:

• Sie betreiben gemeinsam mehrere kleine Bäckereien.
  
  • mehrere – several
  • kleine – plural adjective form
  • Bäckereien – plural of Bäckerei

The structure stays the same:

• Subject: Sie
• Verb: betreiben
• Adverb: gemeinsam
• Object: mehrere kleine Bäckereien (accusative plural)