Learn Hardcore German: Mein Bruder bekommt bald eine Gehaltserhöhung.

Mein Bruder bekommt bald eine Gehaltserhöhung. = My brother will get a raise soon.
Mein Bruder wird bald Chef. = My brother will become boss soon.

So bekommt here is simply “gets/receives a raise”, not “becomes a raise”. It’s a classic false friend for English speakers.

Why is bekommt in the present tense if it’s talking about the future?

German often uses the present tense + a time expression to talk about the future.
The word bald (“soon”) shows that it’s about a future event.

So:

Mein Bruder bekommt bald eine Gehaltserhöhung.
≈ “My brother is getting / will get a raise soon.”

You could also say:

Mein Bruder wird bald eine Gehaltserhöhung bekommen.

Both are correct; the simple present with bald is very natural in everyday German.

What case is eine Gehaltserhöhung, and why is it eine and not ein or einen?

Eine Gehaltserhöhung is in the accusative case as the direct object of the verb bekommt.

Subject (nominative): Mein Bruder – who is getting something
Direct object (accusative): eine Gehaltserhöhung – what he is getting

Gehaltserhöhung is a feminine noun, so in the accusative singular it takes eine.
Declension of the indefinite article “a/an” in the singular:

Masculine: ein Mann (nom.), einen Mann (acc.)
Feminine: eine Frau (nom.), eine Frau (acc.)
Neuter: ein Kind (nom.), ein Kind (acc.)

So feminine accusative = eine, which matches eine Gehaltserhöhung.

How do we know that Gehaltserhöhung is feminine?

Gehaltserhöhung is a compound noun: Gehalt (salary) + Erhöhung (increase).
In German compounds, the gender is always determined by the last part of the compound.

Erhöhung by itself is feminine: die Erhöhung
Therefore, die Gehaltserhöhung is also feminine.

This rule applies very broadly:

das Haus
- die Tür → die Haustür (feminine)
die Schule
- der Lehrer → der Schullehrer (masculine)

Why is Gehaltserhöhung written as one long word and capitalized?

German usually writes noun compounds as one word, not with spaces or hyphens (unless they get very long or ambiguous).

Gehalt
- Erhöhung → Gehaltserhöhung

Also, all nouns are capitalized in German, whether they are simple or compound:

das Gehalt
die Erhöhung
die Gehaltserhöhung

So both the “one word” spelling and the capital G are normal German rules.

Why is it Mein Bruder and not Meinen Bruder or Meinem Bruder?

Mein Bruder is the subject of the sentence, so it has to be in the nominative case.

Declension of mein with a masculine noun Bruder:

Nominative: mein Bruder (subject)
Accusative: meinen Bruder (direct object)
Dative: meinem Bruder (indirect object)

In this sentence, Mein Bruder is doing the action (he gets something), so nominative mein is correct:

Mein Bruder bekommt bald eine Gehaltserhöhung.

Where can bald go in the sentence? Is Mein Bruder bekommt eine Gehaltserhöhung bald correct?

Mein Bruder bekommt bald eine Gehaltserhöhung. is the most natural, neutral word order. Time adverbs like bald very often appear early in the “middle field” (after the verb and before the object).

Other possibilities:

Bald bekommt mein Bruder eine Gehaltserhöhung. (puts emphasis on “soon”)

Mein Bruder bekommt eine Gehaltserhöhung bald is grammatically possible but sounds unusual/clumsy in standard German and would usually be avoided.

Could I leave out the article and say Mein Bruder bekommt bald Gehaltserhöhung?

No, that sounds wrong in standard German. Gehaltserhöhung is a countable event (“a raise”), so you normally need an article or another determiner:

eine Gehaltserhöhung
seine Gehaltserhöhung
diese Gehaltserhöhung

Leaving it bare (bald Gehaltserhöhung) doesn’t work the way “get promotion” or “get raise” might sound in English. You need something like eine.

What’s the difference between Gehaltserhöhung and Lohnerhöhung or mehr Gehalt?

All are related, but there are nuances:

Gehaltserhöhung: a salary increase, usually for employees on a fixed salary (Gehalt).
Lohnerhöhung: a wage increase, often used for hourly or blue‑collar wages (Lohn).
mehr Gehalt: literally “more salary”, a bit less formal/precise; could be used in a phrase like
- Mein Bruder bekommt bald mehr Gehalt. (“My brother will soon earn more salary.”)

In many contexts, Gehaltserhöhung is the standard formal term for “a raise”.

Can I use kriegt instead of bekommt?

Yes, but with a change in style. Kriegen is a more colloquial synonym of bekommen (“to get”).

Mein Bruder kriegt bald eine Gehaltserhöhung.

Meaning is the same, but bekommen sounds more neutral and slightly more standard/formal. Kriegen is very common in spoken German.

How would I say this using a passive construction?

A passive version would focus on the salary instead of the brother:

Bald wird das Gehalt meines Bruders erhöht.
(“Soon my brother’s salary will be increased.”)

Here:

wird … erhöht is the passive (werden + past participle)
das Gehalt becomes the subject
meines Bruders is a genitive (“of my brother”).

The original sentence is active, focusing on what the brother receives; the passive focuses on the action done to the salary.

How do you pronounce Gehaltserhöhung, especially the ö?

Rough syllable division: Ge-halts-er-hö-hung. The main stress is usually on -hö-:

Ge – like “guh”
halt – like “haltz” (final t pronounced, s is unvoiced here)
er – like a quick “air” or “er”
höh – ö is like the vowel in French “deux” or British English “sir” without the r
ung – like “oong” (with a velar ng)

So roughly: guh-HALTS-er-HØØ-hoong. Practicing schön, können, mögen helps with the ö sound.

What exactly does bald mean in terms of time? Is it like “soon” or “in a minute”?

Bald corresponds to English “soon”, and the exact time frame is context-dependent. It doesn’t specify minutes, days, or weeks by itself.

Wir sehen uns bald. – We’ll see each other soon.
Er zieht bald um. – He’ll move house soon.

If you want to be more precise, you’d use expressions like in Kürze, nächsten Monat, in ein paar Wochen, etc. Bald just says “not far in the future”.