Breakdown of Nach dem langen Training bin ich körperlich müde, aber innerlich ruhig.
Questions & Answers about Nach dem langen Training bin ich körperlich müde, aber innerlich ruhig.
The preposition nach (in the sense of after in time) always takes the dative case.
- Training is a neuter noun: das Training (nominative).
- In the dative singular for neuter, das changes to dem.
So you get:
- Nominative: das Training
- Accusative: das Training
- Dative: dem Training
- Genitive: des Trainings
Because nach needs the dative, you must say nach dem Training, not nach das Training.
The ending -en on langen comes from German adjective declension.
Rule here:
- There is a definite article (dem).
- The noun is in the dative singular (because of nach).
- With a definite article in the dative singular (all genders), the adjective takes -en.
So:
- Nominative: das lange Training
- Accusative: das lange Training
- Dative: dem langen Training
- Genitive: des langen Trainings
That is why it must be dem langen Training, not dem lange Training.
German main clauses follow the verb‑second (V2) rule: the finite verb is in the second position of the clause.
In your sentence, the first position is taken by the prepositional phrase:
- Nach dem langen Training → first position
- bin → finite verb → must come second
- ich körperlich müde, aber innerlich ruhig → rest of the clause
So we get:
- Nach dem langen Training bin ich …
If you put the subject first instead, then the verb follows it:
- Ich bin nach dem langen Training körperlich müde, aber innerlich ruhig.
Both orders are correct; the version with Nach dem langen Training at the beginning emphasizes the time frame.
In German, all nouns are capitalized, no matter where they appear in the sentence.
Training is a noun (it names an activity or event), so it must be written with a capital T: das Training.
Adjectives (lang, körperlich, innerlich) and verbs (bin) stay lower‑case unless they are at the start of a sentence or part of a proper name.
German uses definite and indefinite articles more often than English, especially with specific events or concrete instances.
- Nach dem langen Training suggests a particular training session that both speaker and listener know about (e.g. “after the long training [we just had / we talked about]”).
You can say something more general in German too:
- Nach langem Training bin ich … (no article, still dative: langem Training)
This sounds more like “after long periods of training / after training for a long time” in general, not one specific session.
In everyday speech, for a specific workout or practice, nach dem langen Training is the natural choice.
In German, when aber connects two main clauses, you must use a comma.
The sentence really consists of two (almost) full clauses:
- (Nach dem langen Training) bin ich körperlich müde
- (Nach dem langen Training) (bin ich) innerlich ruhig
In the second clause, bin ich is simply left out because it is understood, but grammatically it is still a main clause.
Because aber links these two main clauses, the comma before aber is obligatory:
- …, bin ich körperlich müde, aber innerlich ruhig.
Here we have a predicate after the verb sein (bin):
- ich bin körperlich müde
In this structure:
- müde is a predicate adjective describing the subject ich.
- körperlich modifies müde; it works like an adverb (physically tired).
Predicate adjectives in German do not take endings:
- Ich bin müde.
- Ich bin sehr müde.
- Ich bin heute müde.
- Ich bin körperlich müde.
You only add endings when the adjective stands directly before a noun:
- die körperliche Müdigkeit (attributive adjective, with ending)
- ein langes Training (adjective with article + noun)
So körperliche müde is wrong in this sentence; you need körperlich müde.
Grammatically, it works the same way as körperlich müde:
- ruhig is the predicate adjective after sein (understood bin ich).
- innerlich modifies ruhig and behaves like an adverb, expressing on the inside / emotionally / mentally.
Again, because this is a predicate, no endings are used:
- Ich bin ruhig.
- Ich bin innerlich ruhig.
If you had a noun, then you would add endings:
- eine innere Ruhe (an inner calm)
- die innere Ruhe nach dem Training (the inner calm after the training)
Yes, that is grammatical and natural, but there is a structural difference:
Nach dem langen Training …
uses nach + noun (preposition + dative). It focuses on the event (“after the long training session”).Nachdem ich lange trainiert habe, …
uses nachdem + clause (subordinating conjunction). It focuses on the action / process of having trained for a long time.
Both mean roughly the same in this context. The version with nachdem can feel a bit more descriptive of the activity itself, while nach dem Training feels more like referring to a definite session on the schedule.
German word order is fairly flexible here, but there are some tendencies:
The original:
- Nach dem langen Training bin ich körperlich müde, aber innerlich ruhig.
Possible variants:
Nach dem langen Training bin ich innerlich ruhig, aber körperlich müde.
– still correct, but this now emphasizes the inner calm first and then contrasts it with physical tiredness.Ich bin nach dem langen Training körperlich müde, aber innerlich ruhig.
– more neutral word order, starting with ich.Ich bin körperlich müde, aber innerlich ruhig nach dem langen Training.
– grammatically OK, but nach dem langen Training at the end sounds a bit marked or poetic; in everyday speech you would usually put the time expression earlier.
Within the phrases körperlich müde and innerlich ruhig, however, the order is fixed:
- körperlich müde ✅
- müde körperlich ❌ (unidiomatic / wrong here)
Adverbs like innerlich, körperlich normally come before the adjectives they modify in such predicate constructions.