Word
Der Wasserkocher schaltet sich automatisch aus, sobald das Wasser kocht.
Meaning
The electric kettle switches off automatically as soon as the water boils.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Der Wasserkocher schaltet sich automatisch aus, sobald das Wasser kocht.
das Wasser
the water
sich
itself
sobald
as soon as
automatisch
automatically
Questions & Answers about Der Wasserkocher schaltet sich automatisch aus, sobald das Wasser kocht.
Why is it der Wasserkocher and not die or das Wasserkocher?
Wasserkocher is grammatically masculine in German, so it takes the article der in the nominative singular.
A few useful points:
- Gender is lexical: you generally have to learn the gender with each noun.
- Many device / tool nouns ending in -er are masculine:
- der Computer, der Toaster, der Drucker, der Mixer
This pattern helps, but it’s not an absolute rule.
- der Computer, der Toaster, der Drucker, der Mixer
- In this sentence, der Wasserkocher is also the subject, so the article is in the nominative case. That’s why it’s der, not den (accusative) or dem (dative).
What does sich do in schaltet sich automatisch aus? Why is it there?