Der Dozent meines Bruders ist streng, aber seine Erklärungen sind sehr klar.

My brother’s lecturer is strict, but his explanations are very clear.

Breakdown of Der Dozent meines Bruders ist streng, aber seine Erklärungen sind sehr klar.

• sein: to be
• aber: but
• sehr: very
• sein: his
• mein: my
• der Bruder: the brother
• klar: clear
• die Erklärung: the explanation
• streng: strict
• der Dozent: the lecturer

Questions & Answers about Der Dozent meines Bruders ist streng, aber seine Erklärungen sind sehr klar.

What exactly does Dozent mean, and how is it different from Lehrer or Professor?

Dozent usually means a lecturer or instructor, especially at a university or college.

• Lehrer = teacher (more general, often for school teachers, but can be broader)
• Professor = professor (a specific academic title and position at a university)
• Dozent = someone who teaches at a higher-education institution but doesn’t necessarily hold the formal title of Professor. It can also be used more loosely for someone who regularly gives courses or lectures.

So Der Dozent meines Bruders most naturally suggests “my brother’s lecturer (at university / college).”

Why is it Der Dozent and not Den Dozent or Dem Dozent?

Der Dozent is in the nominative case, because it is the subject of the sentence.

• Der Dozent meines Bruders = The lecturer of my brother (subject)
• ist streng = is strict (verb + complement)

The forms are:

• Nominative (subject): der Dozent
• Accusative (direct object): den Dozent
• Dative (indirect object): dem Dozent

Here, the lecturer is not receiving an action; he’s just the one being described, so the nominative der is used.

What case is meines Bruders, and why is it used here?

Meines Bruders is genitive case. It answers the question “whose lecturer?”:

• Der Dozent meines Bruders = the lecturer of my brother / my brother’s lecturer

In German, possession is very often shown by the genitive:

• das Auto meines Vaters = my father’s car
• die Tasche meiner Mutter = my mother’s bag
• die Freunde meiner Schwester = my sister’s friends

Here, Bruder is masculine. The genitive singular of a masculine noun typically adds -s or -es, and the possessive mein gets a genitive ending too:

• mein → meines
• Bruder → Bruders

So you get meines Bruders = of my brother.

Could I also say Der Dozent von meinem Bruder instead of Der Dozent meines Bruders?

Yes, you can say:

• Der Dozent von meinem Bruder ist streng, …

This is grammatically correct and very common in spoken German. However:

• Genitive (meines Bruders) sounds more formal and is more typical in written or more educated style.
• von + dative (von meinem Bruder) is more colloquial and is extremely frequent in everyday speech.

Both mean the same thing: my brother’s lecturer.

Who does seine in aber seine Erklärungen refer to: the lecturer or the brother?

In this sentence, seine most naturally refers to Der Dozent (the lecturer).

German usually keeps the reference of a possessive pronoun with the subject of the current clause, especially when no new possible owner has been introduced in between. The structure is:

• Der Dozent meines Bruders ist streng,
  The lecturer of my brother is strict,
• aber seine Erklärungen sind sehr klar.
  but his explanations are very clear.

So seine Erklärungen means the lecturer’s explanations.

If you wanted to make clear that it’s the brother’s explanations, you’d typically say it explicitly:

• … aber die Erklärungen meines Bruders sind sehr klar.
  (but my brother’s explanations are very clear.)

Why is it seine Erklärungen and not seiner Erklärungen?

Because seine Erklärungen is in the nominative plural and functions as the subject of the second clause.

Break it down:

• Erklärungen is the plural of Erklärung (feminine: die Erklärung → die Erklärungen).
• In the second clause, seine Erklärungen is what “is very clear”, so it’s the subject → nominative case, plural.

• Possessive adjectives like sein- decline similarly to kein-. In nominative plural (no article), the ending is -e:

  • seine Erklärungen sind sehr klar.
    (like keine Erklärungen sind …)

Seiner Erklärungen would be genitive plural (“of his explanations”) or dative feminine singular in another context, neither of which fits here as the subject of the verb sind.

Why do we say streng and klar without endings (not strenge, klare)?

Because here streng and klar are predicate adjectives: they come after the verb sein (to be).

In German:

• Adjectives before a noun take endings:
  
  • ein strenger Dozent (a strict lecturer)
  • sehr klare Erklärungen (very clear explanations)
• Adjectives after verbs like sein, werden, bleiben (to be, to become, to remain) stay in their base form (no endings):
  
  • Der Dozent ist streng.
  • Die Erklärungen sind klar.

So ist streng and sind sehr klar are correct without additional adjective endings.

Why is there a comma before aber?

There is a comma because aber connects two main clauses:

1. Der Dozent meines Bruders ist streng,
2. seine Erklärungen sind sehr klar.

In German, when two independent clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction like aber, und, oder, a comma is standard before the conjunction:

• …, aber …
• …, und …
• …, oder …

So the comma before aber is required here.

Does aber change the word order? Why is it aber seine Erklärungen sind … and not aber sind seine Erklärungen …?

Aber is a coordinating conjunction. It does not trigger verb-second inversion by itself; the new clause still follows the usual rule: the finite verb is in second position.

In a normal neutral sentence, that means:

• aber seine Erklärungen sind sehr klar.
  (subject seine Erklärungen in first position, verb sind in second)

You can say aber sind seine Erklärungen sehr klar in special contexts for emphasis or stylistic effect, but that sounds marked and less neutral. The standard, neutral version is what you see in the sentence: aber seine Erklärungen sind sehr klar.

Why are Erklärungen plural here, and what is the difference between Erklärung and Erklärungen?

Erklärung means explanation (singular), Erklärungen means explanations (plural).

In this sentence, the idea is that the lecturer gives multiple explanations (during lessons, for different topics, to different questions), and in general, those explanations are very clear. That’s why the plural is natural:

• seine Erklärungen sind sehr klar
  = the explanations he gives are very clear (in general).

If you make it singular:

• seine Erklärung ist sehr klar
  = his explanation is very clear (refers to one specific explanation).

Both are grammatically fine; the plural just sounds more natural for a general statement about how he explains things.