Learn Hardcore German: Neue Probleme entstehen, wenn wir zu viel arbeiten. - New problems arise when we work too much.

Entstehen literally means to arise / to come into being / to develop.
In this sentence, it implies that the problems form or develop as a consequence of working too much.

Rough distinctions:

entstehen – problems arise / develop (they weren’t there before and gradually come into existence)
passieren – things happen (more general, often for events or accidents)
auftreten – problems occur / appear (often a bit more technical or formal)

So Neue Probleme entstehen suggests that new problems are being created by the situation, not just randomly happening.

Why is entstehen in the second position in the sentence?

German main clauses normally follow the verb-second rule (V2):

One element comes first (here: Neue Probleme)
The finite verb comes second (here: entstehen)
Everything else follows (here: wenn wir zu viel arbeiten)

So:

Neue Probleme – first position
entstehen – verb in second position
wenn wir zu viel arbeiten – rest of the clause

You cannot move entstehen away from that second slot in a main clause without changing it to a different clause type (e.g. a yes/no question).

Why is there a comma before wenn and why does the verb go to the end of that clause?

In German, subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like wenn, weil, dass, obwohl etc. are:

Separated from the main clause by a comma
Have the finite verb at the end of the clause

Here, wenn wir zu viel arbeiten is a subordinate clause:

wenn – subordinating conjunction
wir – subject
zu viel arbeiten – verb phrase, with the finite verb arbeiten at the end

That is why you must write:

…, wenn wir zu viel arbeiten.

and not:

*…, wenn wir arbeiten zu viel. (wrong word order in German)

Does wenn here mean when or if? How should I think of it?

In this kind of general statement, wenn can be understood as whenever or if:

Neue Probleme entstehen, wenn wir zu viel arbeiten.
→ New problems arise when(ever) we work too much.
→ New problems arise if we work too much.

The idea is a general condition that is regularly true.

Note:

wenn = when(ever) / if, in a repeated or conditional sense
als = when, for one specific event in the past

Here we are talking about a general rule, so wenn is correct; als would be wrong.

Why is Neue Probleme capitalized like that? Is Neue always capitalized?

Capitalization here has two reasons:

Probleme is a noun, and all nouns are capitalized in German: Probleme.
The whole sentence starts with Neue, so N in Neue is capitalized because it is the first word of the sentence, not because the adjective itself is always capitalized.

Inside a sentence, you would normally write:

neue Probleme (lowercase n in neue because it’s just a normal adjective)

So:

At the start of the sentence: Neue Probleme entstehen …
In the middle: … dass neue Probleme entstehen.

Why is it Neue Probleme and not Neuen Probleme or Neuer Probleme?

This is about adjective endings and case.

Probleme here is the subject of the main clause → nominative plural.
There is no article (no die, meine, etc.) before the adjective.
For nominative plural without an article, the adjective ending is -e.

Pattern:

nominative plural, no article → neue Probleme, alte Freunde, interessante Bücher

So:

Neue Probleme entstehen … = New problems arise …
(nominative plural subject)

Forms like neuen Probleme or neuer Probleme would belong to other cases or structures and are not correct here.

Why is it zu viel arbeiten and not arbeiten zu viel?

In zu viel arbeiten, zu viel is an adverb phrase modifying the verb:

arbeiten = to work
zu viel = too much (in quantity)

So zu viel arbeiten = to work too much.

In this subordinate clause:

wenn wir zu viel arbeiten
→ wenn (conjunction) – wir (subject) – zu viel arbeiten (verb phrase)

Because this is a subordinate clause, the verb arbeiten must come at the end. That’s why arbeiten cannot come before zu viel.

*wenn wir arbeiten zu viel is wrong in German word order.

What is the difference between zu viel arbeiten and zu viel Arbeit haben?

Both deal with too much work, but they focus on different things:

zu viel arbeiten – to work too much
- Focus: on the activity / how much you are working.
- Example: Ich denke, wir arbeiten zu viel. – I think we work too much.
zu viel Arbeit haben – to have too much work
- Focus: on the amount of work you have (tasks, workload).
- Example: Ich habe zu viel Arbeit. – I have too much work.

You could say:

Neue Probleme entstehen, wenn wir zu viel arbeiten.
→ The act of overworking creates new problems.
Neue Probleme entstehen, wenn wir zu viel Arbeit haben.
→ Having too many tasks / too high a workload causes new problems.

Both are possible, but they highlight slightly different aspects.

Why is the present tense entstehen used? Could this also refer to the future?

German commonly uses the present tense (Präsens) for:

General truths / regularities
Future events that are clearly expected or conditional

Here, Neue Probleme entstehen, wenn wir zu viel arbeiten describes a general rule:

Whenever / If we work too much, new problems (will) arise.

In English we might choose present (arise) or future (will arise), but German comfortably stays in the present for this meaning.

You could use werden entstehen to explicitly mark future, but here it’s not necessary and would often sound less natural.

Can I also say Wenn wir zu viel arbeiten, entstehen neue Probleme? Is there any difference?

Yes, that is perfectly correct and very natural:

Wenn wir zu viel arbeiten, entstehen neue Probleme.

Differences:

Neue Probleme entstehen, wenn wir zu viel arbeiten.
- Main clause first, then the condition.
- Slight emphasis on the result (Neue Probleme entstehen).
Wenn wir zu viel arbeiten, entstehen neue Probleme.
- Conditional clause first.
- Slight emphasis on the condition (Wenn wir zu viel arbeiten), a bit like English “When we work too much, new problems arise.”

Grammatically both are fine; which one you choose is mainly a matter of stylistic emphasis.