Learn Hardcore German: Die Ablenkung durch das Handy ist groß, deshalb fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer. - The distraction from the phone is big, therefore concentration is sometimes hard for me.

Die Ablenkung durch das Handy ist groß, deshalb fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer.

The distraction from the phone is big, therefore concentration is sometimes hard for me.

Breakdown of Die Ablenkung durch das Handy ist groß, deshalb fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer.

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Questions & Answers about Die Ablenkung durch das Handy ist groß, deshalb fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer.

In Die Ablenkung durch das Handy ist groß, why is it das Handy and not der Handy or die Handy?

In German, Handy (mobile phone / cell phone) is a neuter noun, so its article is das in the singular:

das Handy – the cell phone (singular, nominative/accusative)
die Handys – the cell phones (plural, nominative/accusative)

The sentence uses durch (through/by) which always takes the accusative, but neuter singular is das in both nominative and accusative, so you don’t see a form change here.

So it’s das Handy because of the noun’s gender, not specifically because of the case in this sentence.

What does durch mean here, and why is it durch das Handy?

durch is a preposition that usually means through, but in many contexts it can also mean because of, by, or due to.

In this phrase:

die Ablenkung durch das Handy
literally: the distraction through the phone
more naturally: the distraction caused by the phone / the distraction from the phone

Grammar points:

durch always takes the accusative case.
das Handy is therefore in the accusative (even though the form das looks the same as nominative).

You could roughly paraphrase it as:

die Ablenkung, die das Handy verursacht
“the distraction that the phone causes.”

Why Die Ablenkung with die? How do I know Ablenkung is feminine?

Ablenkung is feminine, so its article is die in the singular:

die Ablenkung – the distraction (singular)
die Ablenkungen – the distractions (plural)

A very useful pattern:

Nouns ending in -ung in German are almost always feminine.
- die Zeitung (newspaper)
- die Übung (exercise)
- die Rechnung (bill)
- die Bedeutung (meaning)

So once you see Ablenk-ung, you can safely assume die Ablenkung.

Why is the adjective groß not declined? Why not große Ablenkung?

There are two different positions for adjectives in German:

Attributive adjective (directly before a noun)
It gets an ending:
- Die große Ablenkung ist ein Problem.
  “The big distraction is a problem.”
Predicate adjective (after a verb like sein, werden, bleiben)
It has no ending:
- Die Ablenkung ist groß.
  literally: “The distraction is big.”
  (meaning: the level of distraction is high)

In the sentence:

Die Ablenkung durch das Handy ist groß.

groß is part of the predicate (after ist), so it stays in its basic form, without any ending.

Why is there a comma before deshalb? Could it also be a new sentence?

Yes, you could also write:

Die Ablenkung durch das Handy ist groß. Deshalb fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer.

deshalb is a conjunctive adverb, not a coordinating conjunction like und, aber, etc. So grammatically, you actually have two main clauses:

Die Ablenkung durch das Handy ist groß.
Deshalb fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer.

You can:

separate them with a period (very common, very clear), or
connect them with a comma in more flowing, written style.

Both are accepted in modern German; many style guides prefer the period for clarity.

Why is the word order deshalb fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer and not deshalb die Konzentration fällt mir manchmal schwer?

In main clauses, German has the verb in second position rule:

The conjugated verb must be the second element.

When you start with deshalb, that takes the first position, so the verb fällt must come second:

Deshalb – first position
fällt – second position (conjugated verb)
mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer – the rest

So:

✅ Deshalb fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer.
❌ Deshalb die Konzentration fällt mir manchmal schwer. (verb is not in second position)

If you don’t start with deshalb, you see the more “normal” order:

Die Konzentration fällt mir deshalb manchmal schwer.
(subject first, verb second, deshalb later in the sentence)

Why is it mir and not ich in fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer?

mir is the dative form of “ich” and is used here because of the expression:

etwas fällt jemandem schwer
literally: “something falls hard to someone”
meaning: “someone finds something difficult”

So:

jemandem = dative person
etwas = thing that is difficult

In the sentence:

die Konzentration = the thing that is difficult (subject, nominative)
mir = the person for whom it is difficult (dative)

Examples:

Mathe fällt mir schwer. – I find math difficult.
Deutsch fällt dir manchmal schwer. – You sometimes find German difficult.
Die Konzentration fällt ihm schwer. – He finds concentrating difficult.

What exactly does the phrase fällt mir die Konzentration schwer mean?

The structure etwas fällt jemandem schwer is a common idiom meaning:

someone finds something difficult / hard to do

So:

Die Konzentration fällt mir manchmal schwer.
literally: The concentration falls hard to me sometimes.
natural English: I sometimes find it hard to concentrate.

Similar patterns:

Das Lernen fällt mir leicht. – Learning is easy for me / I find learning easy.
Das frühe Aufstehen fällt uns schwer. – We find getting up early hard.

Why do we say die Konzentration fällt mir schwer instead of using a verb like konzentrieren?

Both patterns exist; they are just different structures:

Noun-based:
- Die Konzentration fällt mir schwer.
  “I find concentrating difficult.”
Verb-based:
- Es fällt mir schwer, mich zu konzentrieren.
  literally: “It is difficult for me to concentrate (myself).”

They have almost the same meaning. The original sentence uses the noun die Konzentration as the subject of fällt schwer. The version with es fällt mir schwer, … zu … is also very common and perhaps easier to map to English.

Why is manchmal placed near the end: fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer? Can it go somewhere else?

manchmal is an adverb meaning sometimes. German word order is quite flexible with adverbs, so several positions are possible and correct:

Deshalb fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer.
Deshalb fällt mir manchmal die Konzentration schwer.
Deshalb fällt mir die Konzentration schwer, manchmal. (the last one is more stylistic/emphatic)

Rules of thumb:

The verb (here: fällt) must stay in second position.
Adverbs of time like manchmal are usually in the middle field (between the verb and the end of the sentence), but their exact position relative to other elements can move for emphasis.

The given sentence uses a very natural, common placement.

Why are Ablenkung, Handy, and Konzentration capitalized?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, no matter where they appear in the sentence.

die Ablenkung – distraction (noun → capitalized)
das Handy – cell phone (noun → capitalized)
die Konzentration – concentration (noun → capitalized)

This is a key difference from English, where only proper nouns (names, places, etc.) and sentence starts are capitalized.

Adjectives and verbs stay lower-case:

groß, schwer, fällt, ist, manchmal, durch, deshalb, mir → all lower-case.

Is there a difference between schwer and schwierig in a sentence like this?

Both schwer and schwierig can translate as difficult, but there are some tendencies:

schwer
- more general: “hard”, “tough”
- used in idioms like etwas fällt jemandem schwer
- also means “heavy” in a physical sense
schwierig
- more about complexity or being problematic
- “complicated”, “tricky”

In this particular construction, the idiomatic phrase is:

etwas fällt jemandem schwer,
not fällt schwierig.

So in the sentence:

… deshalb fällt mir die Konzentration manchmal schwer.

you must use schwer, not schwierig.
If you want to use schwierig, you’d phrase it differently:

Die Konzentration ist für mich manchmal schwierig.
(correct, but sounds a bit less idiomatic than the fällt mir schwer version)