Breakdown of Seit dem neuen Wasserfilter trinke ich zu Hause nur noch Leitungswasser.
Questions & Answers about Seit dem neuen Wasserfilter trinke ich zu Hause nur noch Leitungswasser.
Seit is a preposition that takes the dative case.
- The noun here is der neue Wasserfilter (nominative, masculine).
- In the dative singular masculine, der becomes dem, and the adjective gets -en.
So:
- Nominative: der neue Wasserfilter (the new water filter – subject)
- Dative: seit dem neuen Wasserfilter (since the new water filter)
That’s why it’s dem neuen Wasserfilter, not der neue Wasserfilter after seit.
German main clauses normally have the finite verb in second position (the V2 rule).
“Second position” means second element, not second word.
In this sentence:
- Seit dem neuen Wasserfilter = 1st element (a prepositional time phrase)
- trinke = 2nd element → so the verb must come here
- ich zu Hause nur noch Leitungswasser = the rest of the clause
You could also say:
- Ich trinke seit dem neuen Wasserfilter zu Hause nur noch Leitungswasser.
Here ich is the first element, and trinke again is the second element.
Literally, yes, it is “Since the new water filter”.
Idiomatic meaning: “Since we got the new water filter / Since I have the new water filter / Since installing the new water filter.”
German often uses this type of elliptical time expression:
- Seit dem Unfall raucht er nicht mehr.
→ Since the accident, he no longer smokes.
The full idea would be something like seitdem wir den neuen Wasserfilter haben, but German happily shortens it to seit dem neuen Wasserfilter if the context is clear.
With seit (and also seitdem), German uses the present tense for actions that:
- started in the past
- and still continue into the present
English usually uses present perfect here (“have been drinking”), but German does not:
- Seit dem neuen Wasserfilter trinke ich zu Hause nur noch Leitungswasser.
= Since we got the new water filter, I have been drinking only tap water at home.
So the pattern is:
- Seit/Seitdem
- present tense → an ongoing action from the past up to now.
Yes, you could say:
- Seitdem trinke ich zu Hause nur noch Leitungswasser.
Differences:
seit is a preposition and must be followed by a time expression in the dative:
- seit dem neuen Wasserfilter
- seit letztem Jahr
seitdem is usually an adverb or a subordinating conjunction:
- Seitdem trinke ich nur noch Leitungswasser. (Since then, I only drink tap water.)
- Seitdem ich den neuen Wasserfilter habe, trinke ich nur noch Leitungswasser. (Since I have the new water filter, I only drink tap water.)
In your sentence, seit dem neuen Wasserfilter is a prepositional phrase; seitdem would slightly change the structure.
- zu Hause = at home (location, being there)
- nach Hause = (to) home (movement towards home)
Examples:
- Ich bin zu Hause. – I am at home.
- Ich gehe nach Hause. – I am going home.
In your sentence:
- … trinke ich zu Hause nur noch Leitungswasser.
→ I only drink tap water at home (not at work, in a café, etc.).
Both appear in modern German, but:
- zu Hause (two words, capital H) is the more traditional and formal spelling.
- zuhause (one word, lowercase) is increasingly common, especially in informal writing.
In standard, careful writing (like textbooks, formal texts), you’ll most often see:
- zu Hause
- nur = only
- noch = still / anymore / any longer (meaning depends on context)
Together, nur noch often means something like:
- only (and nothing else anymore) / only from now on
So:
Ich trinke zu Hause nur Leitungswasser.
= I only drink tap water at home. (neutral: I don’t drink other drinks.)Ich trinke zu Hause nur noch Leitungswasser.
= I now drink only tap water anymore at home, implying a change from before (previously I drank something else as well, e.g. bottled water).
In your sentence, nur noch suggests a new habit since getting the water filter.
In German, nur and noch are focus particles and usually stand directly before the element they modify.
Here they modify Leitungswasser, so they appear before it:
- … nur noch Leitungswasser.
Other possibilities change the meaning:
Ich trinke nur noch zu Hause Leitungswasser.
→ I now only drink tap water at home (but maybe I drink something else elsewhere).Ich trinke zu Hause nur Leitungswasser noch.
→ This is unusual / unnatural in modern German.
So the original:
- … zu Hause nur noch Leitungswasser.
is natural and puts focus on Leitungswasser being the only thing now.
Leitungswasser literally = “pipe water”, idiomatically = tap water.
Usage:
- It is usually treated as a mass noun (like “water” in English):
- Ich trinke Leitungswasser. – I drink tap water.
- Das Leitungswasser ist hier sehr gut. – The tap water here is very good.
You normally don’t say ein Leitungswasser in everyday speech (you might hear it as shorthand in a bar, but grammatically it’s still a mass noun).
This is about adjective endings after a definite article in the dative singular masculine.
- Nominative: der neue Wasserfilter
- Dative: dem neuen Wasserfilter
Rule (simplified):
- After a definite article (der, die, das, dem, etc.), adjectives usually take the weak ending:
- masculine/neuter dative singular → -en
So we get:
- dem neuen Wasserfilter
German loves compound nouns: it joins words together to form one longer noun.
- Wasser (water) + Filter (filter) → Wasserfilter (water filter)
- Leitung (pipe, line) + Wasser (water) → Leitungswasser (tap water)
In German spelling, these are normally written as single words, not with spaces or hyphens (unless they become extremely long or ambiguous, which is not the case here).