Breakdown of Die Stillen hören zu, und die Lauten erzählen, was sie heute gelernt haben.
Questions & Answers about Die Stillen hören zu, und die Lauten erzählen, was sie heute gelernt haben.
Stillen and Lauten are capitalized because they are adjectives used as nouns (called nominalized adjectives in German).
- still = quiet
- laut = loud, noisy
When you use them with an article and let them stand alone, they mean:
- die Stillen = the quiet ones
- die Lauten = the loud ones / the noisy ones
Any time an adjective is turned into a noun like this, it is written with a capital letter in German, just like regular nouns.
They end in -en because they follow normal adjective declension rules for the plural with a definite article.
Think of the full versions:
- die stillen Kinder = the quiet children
- die lauten Kinder = the loud children
Now, if you drop Kinder but keep the meaning, you get:
- die Stillen (literally: the quiet ones)
- die Lauten (the loud ones)
The adjective ending -en stays the same as in die stillen Kinder / die lauten Kinder, because:
- plural
- with definite article die
- in the nominative case (they are the subjects of the verbs)
In the plural with der/die/das (definite article), adjectives take -en in all four cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive), so Stillen and Lauten are exactly what you would expect.
Here die is the definite article in the plural:
- die Stillen = the quiet ones
- die Lauten = the loud ones
It is not a relative pronoun (die can also mean who/which/that in other sentences, but not here).
You can tell it is not a relative pronoun because there is no preceding noun that die could refer back to, and the word order is normal for a main clause:
- Die Stillen hören zu, ...
(Subject = Die Stillen, Verb = hören)
If it were a relative pronoun, you would expect something like:
- Die Kinder, die still sind, hören zu.
(The children who are quiet listen.)
zuhören is a separable verb (trennbares Verb).
In the present tense main clause, separable verbs split:
- the finite (conjugated) part goes in second position
- the prefix goes to the end of the clause
So:
- infinitive: zuhören
- main-clause present: Die Stillen hören zu.
Pattern:
- Ich höre zu.
- Du hörst zu.
- Wir hören zu.
In a subordinate clause, it would stay together at the end:
- ..., weil die Stillen zuhören.
(…, because the quiet ones are listening.)
hören = to hear (perceive sound)
zuhören = to listen (listen attentively, pay attention)
Usage:
hören usually takes a direct object (accusative):
- Ich höre Musik. – I hear/listen to music.
- Ich höre ein Geräusch. – I hear a noise.
zuhören usually takes an indirect object (dative):
- Ich höre dir zu. – I’m listening to you.
- Hört ihr mir zu? – Are you (plural) listening to me?
In the sentence:
- Die Stillen hören zu = The quiet ones are listening (to someone/something implied from context).
Here was is a relative-like pronoun meaning what. It refers to an indefinite thing:
- was sie heute gelernt haben = what they have learned today
German often uses was when the “antecedent” is vague or general:
- Er erzählte, was passiert war.
He told (us) what had happened.
You would not use das in this exact structure; das as a relative pronoun needs a clear noun before it:
- Das, was sie heute gelernt haben, ist wichtig.
That which they learned today is important.
About the tense:
- gelernt haben is the present perfect (Perfekt):
- sie haben gelernt = they have learned / they learned
- was sie heute lernen would be present tense, meaning “what they are learning today” (right now), which doesn’t match the idea “what they have already learned today”.
Because was sie heute gelernt haben is a subordinate clause (Nebensatz).
Basic rule:
In main clauses: the finite verb is in second position.
- Die Lauten erzählen.
In subordinate clauses (introduced by a conjunction or a word like was, dass, weil, wenn, obwohl, etc.):
all verbs go to the end, in a block.
So:
- sie haben gelernt (main clause word order)
- ..., was sie gelernt haben. (subordinate clause word order)
Inside that block, the past participle (gelernt) comes before the auxiliary (haben):
- gelernt haben
haben gelernt is the present perfect tense (Perfekt), and in spoken German this is the normal past form for most verbs.
Patterns:
- Perfekt:
- sie haben gelernt – they have learned / they learned
- Präteritum (simple past):
- sie lernten – they learned
In everyday speech, Germans usually prefer Perfekt for most verbs:
- Wir haben viel gelernt. (more natural in speech)
rather than - Wir lernten viel. (sounds more written / formal / old-fashioned in many contexts)
The Präteritum is common in writing, especially narrative and for certain verbs like:
- sein (war), haben (hatte), werden (wurde), and the modal verbs (konnte, wollte, musste, etc.).
Roughly:
- erzählen = to tell, to narrate, to relate (often something longer or with some detail)
- sagen = to say (a specific statement)
- sprechen = to speak, to talk (the act of speaking in general)
In this sentence:
- die Lauten erzählen, was sie heute gelernt haben
suggests they talk about or tell what they learned, probably with some description.
Compare:
Sie sagen, was sie gelernt haben.
They say what they learned (more neutral, just stating it).Sie sprechen darüber, was sie gelernt haben.
They talk about what they learned.
So erzählen fits nicely here because it implies giving some account or explanation of what they learned.
We have two independent main clauses:
- Die Stillen hören zu
- die Lauten erzählen, was sie heute gelernt haben
They are joined by und.
In modern German spelling rules:
- A comma between two main clauses connected by und/oder is optional, not strictly required, if both clauses have their own subject.
So both of these are correct:
- Die Stillen hören zu, und die Lauten erzählen, was sie heute gelernt haben.
- Die Stillen hören zu und die Lauten erzählen, was sie heute gelernt haben.
Writers often use the comma here because:
- it makes the structure clearer
- each clause has its own subject (Die Stillen / die Lauten)
- the second clause is a bit longer/complex (it contains a subordinate clause).
sie here is 3rd person plural = they.
Grammatically, it could refer to:
- die Lauten (the loud ones)
- or both groups together, depending on context.
In this specific sentence:
- Die Stillen hören zu, und die Lauten erzählen, was sie heute gelernt haben.
The pronoun sie most naturally refers to die Lauten, because they are the subject of erzählen right before the clause:
- the loud ones tell what they have learned today.
However, in a broader context (for example, if the whole class learned something together), it could also be understood as:
- what they all (the class) have learned today.
There is a little potential ambiguity; in real communication, context and intonation would usually make it clear.
Yes, but not all alternatives sound equally natural.
Standard, neutral version:
- ..., was sie heute gelernt haben.
(what they have learned today)
Other possibilities:
..., was sie gelernt haben heute.
– Grammatically possible, but sounds marked or slightly unusual. You would usually only put heute at the very end if you want to emphasize “today”...., was sie gelernt haben, heute.
– Also possible in speech with a pause and strong emphasis on heute, but then heute is almost like an afterthought.
General rule of thumb for adverbs inside clauses:
- Time–Manner–Place is often a good guideline: sie haben heute viel gelernt
- In subordinate clauses, time adverbs (like heute) usually appear before the main verb complex:
- ..., weil sie heute viel gelernt haben.
So was sie heute gelernt haben is the most natural and typical order.