Sie arbeitet ehrenamtlich im Tierheim.

to work

Breakdown of Sie arbeitet ehrenamtlich im Tierheim.

• sie: she
• im: in the; (masculine or neuter)
• das Tierheim: the animal shelter

Questions & Answers about Sie arbeitet ehrenamtlich im Tierheim.

What exactly does ehrenamtlich mean, literally and in normal use?

Literally, ehrenamtlich comes from Ehre (honor) + Amt (office/position) and means something like “in an honorary capacity” – doing work for the sake of helping, not for pay.

In normal modern use, ehrenamtlich simply means “as a volunteer / unpaid, in a voluntary role”.
So Sie arbeitet ehrenamtlich im Tierheim = She works there as a volunteer / She volunteers at the animal shelter.

What part of speech is ehrenamtlich here? Why not ehrenamtliche or ehrenamtlicher?

Here ehrenamtlich is an adverb describing how she works (she works voluntarily).

• Adjective forms would be:
  • ein ehrenamtlicher Mitarbeiter – a volunteer (male) worker
  • eine ehrenamtliche Mitarbeiterin – a volunteer (female) worker

In those examples, ehrenamtlicher / ehrenamtliche describe a noun and therefore agree in gender, number, and case.

In your sentence, there is no noun after ehrenamtlich, it just modifies the verb arbeitet, so the -lich form without ending is used as an adverb:

• Sie arbeitet ehrenamtlich. – She works as a volunteer.

Could I change the word order and say Sie arbeitet im Tierheim ehrenamtlich?