Breakdown of Eine schüchterne Freundin setzt sich dicht an das Feuer und sagt kaum ein Wort.
Questions & Answers about Eine schüchterne Freundin setzt sich dicht an das Feuer und sagt kaum ein Wort.
Because Freundin is a feminine noun in German, so both the article and adjective must take feminine endings in the nominative singular:
- die Freundin – the (female) friend
- eine Freundin – a (female) friend
With an indefinite article (eine) in the nominative feminine, the adjective takes the ending -e:
- eine schüchterne Freundin – a shy (female) friend
So:
- eine = feminine nominative indefinite article
- schüchterne = adjective in feminine nominative after eine
- Freundin = feminine noun
Freundin literally means female friend, but in many contexts it can also mean girlfriend (romantic partner).
Which it is depends on context and sometimes on how people stress it or explain it.
- eine Freundin can be:
- a (female) friend
- a girlfriend
If you want to clearly say “a (non-romantic) female friend”, people sometimes add something like eine gute Freundin von mir (a good female friend of mine).
If you want to clearly say “girlfriend”, context usually makes it clear, or people might say meine Freundin when talking about their partner.
Attributive adjectives (those directly before a noun) must take an ending that shows case, gender, and number.
Pattern here:
- article: eine (feminine, nominative, singular, indefinite)
- adjective: schüchterne (takes -e because there is an article before it)
- noun: Freundin
The rule: for feminine nominative singular after eine, the adjective ending is -e:
- eine nette Freundin
- eine neue Wohnung
- eine schüchterne Freundin
The form schüchtern without an ending appears as a predicate adjective after a verb:
- Die Freundin ist schüchtern. – The friend is shy.
German distinguishes between:
- sitzen = to be sitting (state)
- sich setzen = to sit down / to take a seat (movement into a sitting position)
In the sentence, she moves into a sitting position by the fire. That’s an action, so German uses the reflexive verb sich setzen:
- Eine schüchterne Freundin setzt sich ...
= A shy (female) friend sits down ...
If you said:
- Eine schüchterne Freundin sitzt dicht am Feuer.
= A shy friend is sitting close to the fire.
That describes the state, not the action of sitting down.
sich is the reflexive pronoun for third person singular and plural (er/sie/es/sie) in the accusative:
- Er setzt sich. – He sits down.
- Sie setzt sich. – She sits down.
- Sie setzen sich. – They sit down.
For sich setzen, the reflexive pronoun is part of the verb’s normal pattern; you usually can’t drop it without changing the meaning:
- setzen something = to place/put something somewhere
- sich setzen = to sit down oneself
Example:
- Sie setzt die Tasse auf den Tisch. – She puts the cup on the table.
- Sie setzt sich auf den Stuhl. – She sits herself down on the chair.
The preposition an can take either accusative or dative, depending on whether you express movement towards something or location:
- an + Akkusativ = direction / movement (where to?)
- an + Dativ = position / location (where?)
In the sentence:
- setzt sich dicht an das Feuer
= she sits herself right up to the fire (movement towards it)
→ so an das Feuer (accusative)
If she was already sitting there, you’d use the dative:
- Sie sitzt dicht am Feuer.
(am = an dem, dative)
She is sitting close to the fire.
Grammatically no; ans is just the contraction of an das:
- an das Feuer → ans Feuer
Both mean the same: to the fire (with movement toward it) and are correct.
In everyday speech and informal writing, ans Feuer is more common and sounds more natural. An das Feuer is slightly more formal or careful.
Yes, das Feuer is a neuter noun, and its gender is fixed:
- das Feuer – the fire
- ein Feuer – a fire
So in an das Feuer, the article das is the accusative singular of a neuter noun:
- nominative: das Feuer
- accusative: das Feuer (same form)
Here it’s accusative because of an + direction (movement).
Here dicht is an adverb meaning close / very near:
- dicht an das Feuer = (right) close to the fire
So it describes how she sits down by the fire: not just anywhere near it, but very close to it.
Note that dicht can also mean dense / tightly packed (a dense forest = ein dichter Wald), but in this sentence it clearly means very near.
You could roughly paraphrase:
- Sie setzt sich dicht an das Feuer.
≈ She sits down right next to the fire.
German word order in the middle of the clause (Mittelfeld) is flexible, but not everything sounds natural.
Typical, natural order:
- setzt sich dicht an das Feuer
Putting dicht after the prepositional phrase:
- setzt sich an das Feuer dicht
is grammatically possible but sounds odd or poetic. In normal prose, adverbs like dicht usually come before the prepositional phrase they modify.
So the normal, idiomatic choice is:
- Eine schüchterne Freundin setzt sich dicht an das Feuer.
kaum ein Wort literally means hardly a word and is an idiomatic expression in both German and English:
- Sie sagt kaum ein Wort.
= She says hardly a word / barely says a word.
Using Wort in the singular with ein is standard in this type of expression. kaum Wörter would mean hardly any words and is possible, but it sounds less idiomatic here and slightly changes the nuance.
Compare:
- Sie sagt kaum ein Wort. – She is almost completely silent.
- Sie sagt kaum Wörter. – She doesn’t say many words. (possible, but less natural)
So kaum ein Wort sagen is the set phrase meaning “to say almost nothing”.
kaum is a focusing word meaning hardly / barely / scarcely. It typically goes before the element it modifies.
Here it modifies the amount of what she says (the noun phrase), not the manner of saying:
- Sie sagt kaum ein Wort.
= The number of words is almost zero.
If you said:
- Sie sagt ein Wort kaum.
that would mean something like She barely says one particular word, which is not the intended meaning.
So the natural pattern is:
- kaum ein Wort = hardly a word
- kaum etwas = hardly anything
- kaum jemand = hardly anyone
In German (as in English), when two main clauses share the same subject, you can omit the subject in the second clause after und:
- Eine schüchterne Freundin setzt sich dicht an das Feuer und sagt kaum ein Wort.
is equivalent to:
- Eine schüchterne Freundin setzt sich dicht an das Feuer, und sie sagt kaum ein Wort.
The subject eine schüchterne Freundin (she) is understood for both verbs setzt sich and sagt. Adding sie before sagt would be grammatically correct but unnecessary and a bit heavy here.
German main clauses have the finite verb in second position (V2 rule).
First clause:
- Eine schüchterne Freundin (position 1: subject)
- setzt (position 2: finite verb)
- sich dicht an das Feuer (rest of the clause)
Second clause after und:
- und is a coordinating conjunction and is not counted as a position
- sagt (position 1 of the new clause = verb, because subject is omitted but understood)
- kaum ein Wort (rest of the clause)
If you reinsert the subject, the pattern is clearer:
- … und sie sagt kaum ein Wort.
- sie (position 1)
- sagt (position 2)
So each main clause still respects the verb‑second rule.
Yes. German often uses the present tense (Präsens) for narrative or for vivid storytelling, even about past events.
So:
- Eine schüchterne Freundin setzt sich dicht an das Feuer und sagt kaum ein Wort.
could be:
- literal present: A shy friend sits down by the fire and hardly says a word.
- narrative present: You’re telling a story and “relive” the scene as if it’s happening now.
If you wanted a clear simple past (Präteritum), you’d say:
- Eine schüchterne Freundin setzte sich dicht an das Feuer und sagte kaum ein Wort. – A shy friend sat down by the fire and hardly said a word.