Breakdown of In der Kneipe arbeitet eine freundliche Kellnerin, die uns oft anlächelt.
Questions & Answers about In der Kneipe arbeitet eine freundliche Kellnerin, die uns oft anlächelt.
The preposition in can take either dative or accusative in German:
- Dative = location (where something is)
- Accusative = direction/motion (where something is going)
In this sentence, we are talking about where the waitress works, not where someone is going:
- In der Kneipe arbeitet … = She works in the pub (location → dative)
- In die Kneipe gehen wir … = We go into the pub (direction → accusative)
Because Kneipe is feminine, the dative singular article is der (from the article table: die → der in dative singular).
German main clauses follow the verb-second (V2) rule: the conjugated verb must be in second position, but “second” means second element, not second word.
You can put something other than the subject in first position for emphasis, often a time or place phrase:
- Eine freundliche Kellnerin arbeitet in der Kneipe.
- In der Kneipe arbeitet eine freundliche Kellnerin.
In both, the finite verb arbeitet is in second place:
- Eine freundliche Kellnerin | arbeitet | …
- In der Kneipe | arbeitet | …
The subject just moves after the verb when some other element is placed first.
Two things are important here: gender and adjective endings.
Gender:
- Kellner = male waiter (masculine)
- Kellnerin = female waitress (feminine, the ending -in marks feminine)
So the noun is feminine.
Article and ending in the nominative feminine singular:
- Indefinite article: eine (not ein)
- Adjective after eine: freundliche
Pattern: eine + freundliche + Kellnerin
This is the normal nominative feminine singular with an attributive adjective:
→ eine freundliche Kellnerin = a friendly waitress.
Freundliche is an adjective before a noun, so it needs an adjective ending. The ending depends on:
- the article (here: eine),
- the case (here: nominative),
- the gender/number (here: feminine singular).
For feminine nominative singular after eine, the ending is -e:
- eine freundliche Kellnerin
- eine gute Freundin
- eine neue Tasche
So freundlich → freundliche because it’s:
[eine] [freundlich-e] [Kellnerin] in nominative feminine singular.
Die uns oft anlächelt is a relative clause.
- It starts with the relative pronoun die.
- It gives extra information about Kellnerin.
- It functions like “who smiles at us often” in English.
Full structure:
- In der Kneipe arbeitet eine freundliche Kellnerin, die uns oft anlächelt.
→ In the pub works a friendly waitress *who often smiles at us.*
The relative clause describes the noun Kellnerin and is separated by a comma.
In this sentence, die is not the article “the”. It is a relative pronoun.
- It refers back to Kellnerin (feminine, singular).
- It stands for “who” in English.
- It is in the nominative, because it is the subject of the relative clause.
Inside the relative clause:
- die = subject (“who”)
- uns = object (“us”)
- oft = adverb (“often”)
- anlächelt = verb (“smiles at”)
So: die = who (the one who) → the friendly waitress.
In subordinate clauses (like relative clauses), German normally puts the conjugated verb at the end.
- Main clause: Sie lächelt uns oft an.
- Verb (lächelt) is in second position.
- Relative clause: … die uns oft anlächelt.
- Same verb, but now as anlächelt at the end of the clause.
So the rule is:
- Main clause (Hauptsatz) → verb in second position.
- Subordinate clause (Nebensatz) → verb in final position.
Since die uns oft anlächelt is a subordinate (relative) clause, anlächelt goes to the end.
Anlächeln is a separable verb:
- Infinitive: anlächeln
- Main clause: the prefix an separates and goes to the end:
- Sie lächelt uns oft an.
But in a subordinate clause, the whole verb stays together at the end:
- … die uns oft anlächelt.
- Not: die uns oft lächelt an (wrong)
So pattern:
- Main clause: lächelt … an
- Subordinate clause: … anlächelt
The verb anlächeln takes a direct object in the accusative:
- jemanden anlächeln = to smile at someone
Uns can be both dative or accusative depending on the verb, but here it is accusative plural because it is the direct object:
- Nominative: wir
- Accusative: uns
- Dative: uns
- Genitive: unser
You can see the pattern with a noun:
- Sie lächelt die Kinder an. (accusative)
→ Sie lächelt uns an. (accusative pronoun)
So here uns = us (as the ones being smiled at), in accusative.
German always uses a comma before a (finite) subordinate clause, including relative clauses.
- …, die uns oft anlächelt.
The comma marks the start of the relative clause. That clause has its own subject and verb (die … anlächelt) and depends on the main clause.
So:
- Main clause: In der Kneipe arbeitet eine freundliche Kellnerin
- Relative clause: die uns oft anlächelt
The comma separates these two clauses.
Yes. That’s also correct, just with a different emphasis:
- In der Kneipe arbeitet eine freundliche Kellnerin, die uns oft anlächelt.
→ Emphasis on where she works (the pub). - Eine freundliche Kellnerin arbeitet in der Kneipe, die uns oft anlächelt.
→ Emphasis on who is working (the friendly waitress).
In both cases, the verb arbeitet remains in second position, and the relative clause , die uns oft anlächelt still describes Kellnerin.
German normally uses the simple present tense for both:
- English simple present (She works)
- English present progressive (She is working)
So:
- Sie arbeitet in der Kneipe.
→ She works in the pub. / She is working in the pub.
There is a progressive construction with am + Verb-n (e.g. Sie ist am Arbeiten), but it is:
- more colloquial,
- not needed here,
- often not used with stative/habitual descriptions like a job.
So arbeitet covers the meaning naturally in German.