Breakdown of Zu laute Musik im Treppenhaus ist nervig, aber ich bleibe trotzdem freundlich.
Questions & Answers about Zu laute Musik im Treppenhaus ist nervig, aber ich bleibe trotzdem freundlich.
In this sentence zu is not the preposition to, but an adverb meaning too (excessively).
- zu laut = too loud
- sehr laut = very loud
So zu laute Musik = music that is too loud, not “to loud music.”
Laute is the adjective laut with an ending that shows gender, number, and case.
- Musik is feminine.
- Here it is the subject of the sentence → nominative singular feminine.
- With no article (Ø), adjectives take strong endings.
- The strong ending for nominative feminine singular is -e.
So:
- nominative fem. sg. → laute Musik
(“Zu” doesn’t change the ending; it just modifies the adjective.)
Compare:
- die laute Musik (with article, weak ending)
- lauter Musik (dative/genitive without article; different case)
Both are possible, but they’re used differently:
Zu laute Musik im Treppenhaus ist nervig.
→ A general statement. “Loud music in the stairwell is annoying” in general.Die zu laute Musik im Treppenhaus ist nervig.
→ Refers to specific music that you and your listener know about (e.g. your neighbour’s music right now).
German often drops the article with uncountable or abstract nouns when speaking generally:
Musik, Wasser, Liebe, Kaffee etc.
im is a contraction of:
- in + dem = im
So literally it’s in dem Treppenhaus (“in the stairwell”).
Dem is dative singular of the neuter noun das Treppenhaus.
The preposition in can take either accusative or dative:
- Accusative = movement into something
→ Ich gehe in das Treppenhaus. (I go into the stairwell.) - Dative = location (no movement)
→ Ich bin in dem Treppenhaus. (I am in the stairwell.)
In our sentence, the music is located in the stairwell, not moving into it, so dative is used:
- in dem Treppenhaus → im Treppenhaus
- die Treppe = the staircase / set of stairs (the steps themselves)
- das Treppenhaus = the stairwell, the enclosed space in a building where the stairs are.
In a typical apartment building:
- The whole vertical space with the stairs, landings, walls etc. = Treppenhaus
- The steps you walk on = Treppe
German often puts the topic or important information at the beginning. Here, the speaker wants to foreground zu laute Musik im Treppenhaus.
Grammatically, this phrase is the subject of the verb ist:
- [Zu laute Musik im Treppenhaus] (subject) ist (verb) nervig (predicate adjective).
You could also say:
- Es ist nervig, wenn die Musik im Treppenhaus zu laut ist.
That version uses a dummy subject es and a wenn-clause, but the original is shorter and more direct.
nervig is an adjective derived from die Nerven (nerves).
It means roughly annoying, irritating, gets on my nerves.
- ist nervig = is annoying
So Zu laute Musik … ist nervig = “Too loud music … is annoying.”
An alternative is the verb nerven (to annoy):
- Zu laute Musik im Treppenhaus nervt.
(literally “annoys” / “gets on [one’s] nerves.”)
Both are natural; ist nervig focuses on describing the situation, nervt focuses on the action of annoying.
Both can be translated as annoying, but they’re used a bit differently:
nervig
→ very common, informal, everyday. Describes something that bothers you.
Die Musik ist nervig. – The music is annoying.nervend
→ more like “annoying” in the sense “constantly getting on your nerves”; often feels a bit more literal or descriptive, less idiomatic in many contexts.
Die ständig klingelnden Handys sind nervend. – The constantly ringing phones are annoying.
In this sentence, nervig is the most natural choice.
Because aber links two main clauses:
- Zu laute Musik im Treppenhaus ist nervig,
- aber ich bleibe trotzdem freundlich.
In German, zwischen zwei Hauptsätzen mit einer Konjunktion wie „aber“ setzt man ein Komma.
So the comma is obligatory here.
Yes, you can start a sentence with Aber, just like English But:
- Aber zu laute Musik im Treppenhaus ist nervig.
That would usually follow another sentence in context. In our original example, aber connects two clauses in one sentence, so it appears after the comma.
trotzdem is an adverb meaning nevertheless / anyway / despite that.
In aber ich bleibe trotzdem freundlich it highlights the contrast:
- Loud music is annoying, nevertheless I remain friendly.
Position:
- Ich bleibe trotzdem freundlich. (neutral, very common)
- Trotzdem bleibe ich freundlich. (emphasizes the contrast a bit more)
- Ich bleibe freundlich trotzdem. (possible, but sounds less natural here)
The typical, most natural position is directly before the main verb or near it, as in the original.
Both express contrast, but grammatically they are different:
trotzdem = adverb (“nevertheless”), does not change word order:
- Es ist nervig, aber ich bleibe trotzdem freundlich.
- Es ist nervig. Trotzdem bleibe ich freundlich.
obwohl = subordinating conjunction (“although”), sends the verb to the end of its clause:
- Obwohl es nervig ist, bleibe ich freundlich.
- Ich bleibe freundlich, obwohl es nervig ist.
So you can transform the original sentence roughly into:
- Obwohl zu laute Musik im Treppenhaus nervig ist, bleibe ich freundlich.
Both are possible, but they express slightly different ideas:
- ich bin freundlich = I am friendly (describes a state, more neutral).
- ich bleibe freundlich = I remain / stay friendly (despite something).
In the context of something annoying, bleibe emphasizes that you are making an effort to remain friendly even though the situation is irritating. That contrast fits nicely with aber and trotzdem.
After verbs like sein, werden, bleiben (so-called copular verbs), adjectives usually appear in their basic form (predicate adjectives) and do not take endings:
- Ich bin freundlich.
- Ich werde müde.
- Ich bleibe ruhig.
- Ich bleibe freundlich.
Adjective endings (like freundliche, freundlichen) appear when the adjective is before a noun and part of a noun phrase:
- ein freundlicher Mann
- eine freundliche Nachbarin
- freundliche Leute
Here, freundlich is not describing a noun but the subject ich via the verb bleibe, so it stays uninflected.