Word
Meine Schwester liest ein Buch, statt einen aufregenden Film zu schauen.
Meaning
My sister is reading a book instead of watching an exciting film.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Meine Schwester liest ein Buch, statt einen aufregenden Film zu schauen.
das Buch
the book
lesen
to read
mein
my
der Film
the film
Questions & Answers about Meine Schwester liest ein Buch, statt einen aufregenden Film zu schauen.
What exactly does statt do in this sentence, and why is there a comma before it?
statt here means instead of and introduces an alternative action that does not happen.
- Meine Schwester liest ein Buch – this is the action that does happen.
- statt einen aufregenden Film zu schauen – this is the action that would be the alternative, but does not happen.
So the structure is basically:
(She) does A, instead of doing B.
The comma is required because statt introduces an infinitive clause with zu (statt … zu schauen). In modern German spelling rules, a comma must be used when an infinitive group is introduced by words like um, ohne, statt, anstatt, außer, als.
Why is it einen aufregenden Film and not ein aufregender Film?