Learn Hardcore German: Der Geruch im Stall ist stark, aber nach einer Weile gewöhnt man sich daran. - The smell in the stable is strong, but after a while you get used to it.

Accusative: movement into something – Ich gehe in den Stall. (I go into the stable.)
Dative: location (no movement) – Ich bin im Stall. (I am in the stable.)

In your sentence we’re just talking about the location of the smell (where it is), so it’s dative: im Stall.

You could say in dem Stall, but in everyday German the contraction im is strongly preferred and sounds more natural.

Why is it der Geruch? Is Geruch always masculine?

Yes, Geruch is a masculine noun in German, so it takes der in the nominative singular:

der Geruch – the smell

Some key forms:

Nominative: der Geruch
Accusative: den Geruch
Dative: dem Geruch
Genitive: des Geruchs
Plural: die Gerüche

In the sentence, Der Geruch im Stall ist stark, Der Geruch is the subject of the sentence, so it’s nominative → der.

You can’t change the gender; it’s just something to memorize with each noun: die Milch, das Haus, der Geruch, etc.

Can stark really describe a smell? I thought it meant “strong” like physically strong.

Yes, stark can absolutely describe a smell. It means strong/intense, and it’s used in several contexts:

Physical strength: Er ist sehr stark. – He is very strong.
Taste/smell: Der Kaffee riecht stark. – The coffee smells strong.
Effect/degree: Es hat einen starken Einfluss. – It has a strong influence.

For smells, stark usually means very noticeable / intense, but not automatically positive or negative. Some nuances:

ein starker Geruch – a strong/intense smell (neutral)
ein unangenehmer Geruch – an unpleasant smell
Gestank – stench (clearly negative, see a later question)
intensiver Geruch – intense smell (a bit more formal)

So Der Geruch im Stall ist stark = the smell is strong / very intense there, which fits well.

Why is there a comma before aber, and why is the verb gewöhnt in second position in the second clause?

In German, aber is a coordinating conjunction (like but in English). It connects two main clauses:

Der Geruch im Stall ist stark,
aber nach einer Weile gewöhnt man sich daran.

Rules involved:

Comma before aber
Coordinating conjunctions like aber, und, oder, sondern, denn usually have a comma before them when they connect two full clauses.
Both parts here have their own subject and verb, so you must write the comma.
Verb-second (V2) in main clauses
In German main clauses, the finite verb is in second position:
- First clause: Der Geruch im Stall (position 1) – ist (position 2)
- Second clause: nach einer Weile (position 1) – gewöhnt (position 2) – man sich daran (rest of the clause)

So the adverbial nach einer Weile is moved to first position for emphasis/flow, and then the verb gewöhnt must come immediately after it.

What does man mean here? Can I just say ich or du instead?

man is an impersonal pronoun in German. It’s similar to one, you, or people in English when you mean things in general:

Man sagt, dass … – People say that … / They say that …
In Deutschland trinkt man viel Bier. – In Germany people drink a lot of beer.

In your sentence:

… gewöhnt man sich daran.
≈ … you get used to it. / one gets used to it. / people get used to it.

So the sentence is talking generally about what typically happens to almost anyone in that situation.

You could replace man with other pronouns, but the meaning changes:

… gewöhne ich mich daran. – I get used to it. (just you personally)
… gewöhnst du dich daran. – you get used to it. (addressing someone directly)
… gewöhnt man sich daran. – people (in general) get used to it.

The original uses man because it’s a general statement about human experience.

Why is it gewöhnt man sich daran and not just gewöhnt man daran?

Because sich gewöhnen an etwas is a reflexive verb in German. The full pattern is:

sich an etwas gewöhnen – to get used to something

It always needs the reflexive pronoun (mich, dich, sich, uns, euch, sich) plus the an-phrase (or daran):

Ich gewöhne mich an den Geruch.
Du gewöhnst dich an den Geruch.
Man gewöhnt sich daran.

You cannot drop the reflexive pronoun:

❌ Man gewöhnt daran. (wrong)
✅ Man gewöhnt sich daran.

Also note the position of sich:

Main clause verb-second word order:
nach einer Weile (1) – gewöhnt (2) – man sich daran (rest)
The subject man comes first in the “middle field,” and the reflexive pronoun sich follows the subject.

Why daran and not an ihn, an den Geruch, or an es?

daran is a da-compound: da + an = daran. These are very common in German when you refer back to something with a preposition:

an + es → daran – to it
auf + es → darauf – on it
mit + es → damit – with it

Here, daran refers back to den Geruch im Stall (the whole situation of the smell in the stable).

Alternatives and nuances:

Man gewöhnt sich an den Geruch.
Fully repeats the noun. Also correct, a bit more explicit.
Man gewöhnt sich daran.
Uses a pronoun; more natural when the smell has already been mentioned.
Man gewöhnt sich an ihn.
Grammatically OK, but normally interpreted as “to him” (a male person), not to a smell.
Man gewöhnt sich an es.
Technically possible, but sounds quite unnatural; native speakers overwhelmingly prefer daran.

So daran is the normal, idiomatic pronoun here.

What’s going on with nach einer Weile? Which case is einer Weile, and why?

nach is a preposition that (in the temporal sense “after”) always takes the dative case.

nach
- dative

Weile is a feminine noun:

die Weile – a (short) while

Dative singular feminine uses -er on the article (and often no ending on the noun):

Nominative: eine Weile
Dative: einer Weile

So:

nach einer Weile = after a while
(nach
- dative → einer Weile)

Word order:
nach einer Weile is an adverbial phrase (time) placed in first position for style; you could also say:

Man gewöhnt sich nach einer Weile daran.
(same meaning, just a different emphasis)

Is there a difference between nach einer Weile and mit der Zeit?

Both express the idea that something changes over time, but there’s a nuance:

nach einer Weile
Literally: after a while.
Feels a bit more like a single point after some (unspecified but not huge) amount of time has passed.
mit der Zeit
Literally: with time / over time.
Suggests a gradual process, often over a longer or more diffuse period.

In your sentence, both are possible:

… aber nach einer Weile gewöhnt man sich daran.
… aber mit der Zeit gewöhnt man sich daran.

Both mean that you eventually get used to the smell. mit der Zeit emphasizes the gradual nature a bit more; nach einer Weile sounds a bit more like “after some time has passed, then it’s OK.”

Why is it ist stark and not ist starke or ist starker?

This is about adjective endings.

When an adjective comes before a noun, it usually gets an ending:

ein starker Geruch – a strong smell
der starke Geruch – the strong smell

But when an adjective comes after the verb sein (to be), werden (to become), bleiben (to remain), it normally has no ending:

Der Geruch ist stark.
Der Kaffee ist heiß.
Das Wetter wird schön.

So in Der Geruch im Stall ist stark, stark is a predicate adjective (part of the predicate), and it stays in the base form: stark, not starke.

starker would be the comparative:

Der Geruch ist stärker. – The smell is stronger.

Could I say Der Gestank im Stall instead of Der Geruch im Stall?

You can, but the meaning becomes more negative.

der Geruch – smell, odor (neutral; can be pleasant or unpleasant)
der Gestank – stench (clearly unpleasant, very negative)

So:

Der Geruch im Stall ist stark …
The smell in the stable is strong … (intense, but not automatically “disgusting”)
Der Gestank im Stall ist stark …
The stench in the stable is strong … (implies it smells really bad)

If you want to stay neutral or objective, Geruch is better.
If you want to emphasize how awful it is, Gestank fits.

Could I say the sentence in the past or future? How would it change?

Yes. Some natural variants:

Past (perfect):

Der Geruch im Stall war stark, aber nach einer Weile hat man sich daran gewöhnt.
The smell in the stable was strong, but after a while people got used to it.

Here:

ist → war (past of sein)
gewöhnt man sich → hat man sich gewöhnt (perfect of sich gewöhnen)

Past (simple):

Der Geruch im Stall war stark, aber nach einer Weile gewöhnte man sich daran.
Also correct, but this gewöhnte form is less common in spoken language.

Future:

Der Geruch im Stall wird stark sein, aber nach einer Weile wird man sich daran gewöhnen.
The smell in the stable will be strong, but after a while people will get used to it.

However, in everyday German, the present tense is often used with a future meaning if it’s clear from context, so the original present-tense sentence could also refer to a typical future situation.