Learn Hardcore German: Bei schwierigen Aufgaben brauche ich Geduld, aber Humor macht alles leichter. - With difficult tasks I need patience, but humor makes everything easier.

situations or occasions: bei Regen (when it rains), bei Stress (in times of stress)
activities you are doing: beim Lernen (while studying), beim Kochen (while cooking)

In bei schwierigen Aufgaben, bei means something like when I have / when I am doing difficult tasks or in the context of difficult tasks.

mit schwierigen Aufgaben would sound more like together with difficult tasks (less idiomatic here).
in schwierigen Aufgaben would literally mean inside difficult tasks, which doesn’t fit the meaning.

So bei is the natural preposition to show that the need for patience happens in the situation where you are dealing with difficult tasks.

Why does the adjective have the ending -en in schwierigen Aufgaben?

Schwierigen is in the dative plural after the preposition bei.

Rules you need here:

Bei always takes the dative case.
Aufgaben is plural.
In dative plural without any article, adjectives take -en.

So you get:

bei
- dative plural
no article before the noun
⇒ bei schwierigen Aufgaben

Other examples of the same pattern:

bei guten Freunden (with good friends / when I am with good friends)
mit hohen Temperaturen (with high temperatures) – mit also takes dative
von alten Häusern (of old houses) – von takes dative

What case is Aufgaben in, and how can I tell?

Aufgaben is dative plural.

You can tell because:

The preposition bei always requires dative.
The meaning is plural (tasks, not a single task).
Many feminine nouns like die Aufgabe form the plural with -n:
- singular: die Aufgabe
- plural (nominative/accusative): die Aufgaben
- plural dative: also den Aufgaben (the noun form looks the same, the article changes)

Here we have no article, so you only see Aufgaben, which looks the same in several plural cases.
The key is the preposition bei → dative.

Why is the word order brauche ich instead of ich brauche after Bei schwierigen Aufgaben?

German main clauses follow the verb-second (V2) rule:

The finite verb (here brauche) must be in second position in the sentence.
The subject (ich) doesn’t have to come first; only the verb position is fixed.

In the sentence:

Bei schwierigen Aufgaben = 1st position (a prepositional phrase moved to the front)
brauche = 2nd position (the verb, as required)
ich Geduld = the rest (subject + object)

So:

Bei schwierigen Aufgaben brauche ich Geduld … (PP – verb – subject – object)
If you start with the subject instead, you can also say:
Ich brauche bei schwierigen Aufgaben Geduld … (subject – verb – PP – object)

Both are correct; the important rule is that brauche is in second position.

Why is there no article before Geduld and Humor? Why not die Geduld and der Humor?

Geduld (patience) and Humor (sense of humor) are abstract, uncountable nouns used here in a general sense.

German often uses no article when talking about abstract qualities in general:

Geduld ist wichtig. (Patience is important.)
Humor hilft. (Humor helps.)
Liebe braucht Zeit. (Love needs time.)

In the sentence:

brauche ich Geduld → I need (some) patience (in general)
aber Humor macht alles leichter → but humor (in general) makes everything easier

If you use an article, you change the meaning:

die Geduld = a specific patience (for example, his patience in a particular situation)
der Humor = a specific kind of humor or a specific person’s humor

So, no article here keeps the meaning general, just like English patience and humor without an article.

What are the grammatical roles of Geduld and Humor in this sentence?

In brauche ich Geduld:
- ich is the subject (nominative)
- brauche is the verb
- Geduld is the direct object in accusative
In aber Humor macht alles leichter:
- Humor is the subject (nominative)
- macht is the verb
- alles is the direct object (accusative)
- leichter is a predicate adjective describing alles (everything becomes easier)

So the structure of the second clause is:
Subject (Humor) – Verb (macht) – Object (alles) – Predicate adjective (leichter).

What exactly is alles here, and could I say es instead?

Alles is a pronoun meaning everything. It refers to the situation or things in general that are affected by humor.

Humor macht alles leichter.
= Humor makes everything easier.

You can say Humor macht es leichter, but there is a difference:

alles is more general and stronger:
→ humor makes everything easier
es usually refers to something specific mentioned in the context:
→ humor makes it easier (a specific thing, task, situation)

So in a general statement, alles is more natural and matches the broad meaning of the sentence.

Why is it leichter and not leicht? Isn’t leichter a comparative?

Yes, leichter is the comparative form of the adjective leicht (easy / light):

leicht → positive: easy
leichter → comparative: easier
am leichtesten → superlative: (the) easiest

In Humor macht alles leichter, the comparison is implicit:

with humor: things are easier
without humor: things are less easy

German often uses the comparative without explicitly saying “than” (als) when the comparison is clear from context. English does exactly the same:

Humor makes everything easier.
Music makes learning easier.

You could also say in German:

Humor macht alles leichter als ohne Humor.
(Humor makes everything easier than without humor.)

But usually, that als phrase is simply left out when the contrast is obvious.

Could I use einfacher instead of leichter? Is there a difference?

You could say:

Humor macht alles einfacher.

This is also correct and means Humor makes everything simpler/easier.

Subtle difference:

leichter – more neutral, “easier to bear / less difficult / lighter”
einfacher – focuses a bit more on “less complicated / more straightforward”

In everyday speech, both are normal here. Leichter machen is a very common phrase meaning to make something easier / more bearable.

Why is there a comma before aber?

In German, aber can work as a coordinating conjunction linking two main clauses. In that case, you put a comma before it.

Here we have two full main clauses:

Bei schwierigen Aufgaben brauche ich Geduld
Humor macht alles leichter

They are joined by aber, so we write:

Bei schwierigen Aufgaben brauche ich Geduld, aber Humor macht alles leichter.

This is similar to English punctuation with but:

I need patience with difficult tasks, but humor makes everything easier.

If aber is used in other ways (for example, as a particle in spoken German like Das ist aber schön!), the comma rules are different, but here it clearly connects two full clauses, so the comma is required.