Breakdown of In der Stellenausschreibung steht, dass Teamarbeit und Flexibilität wichtig sind.
Questions & Answers about In der Stellenausschreibung steht, dass Teamarbeit und Flexibilität wichtig sind.
The verb stehen literally means “to stand”, but German uses it a lot for texts:
- Auf dem Schild steht „Rauchen verboten“. – “The sign says ‘No smoking’.”
- In der Zeitung steht viel über Politik. – “There’s a lot about politics in the newspaper.”
So In der Stellenausschreibung steht … is idiomatic and means “In the job advertisement it says … / it is written that …”.
English doesn’t say “in the ad it stands”, but German does; it’s just a set expression for “to be written somewhere”.
Stellenausschreibung is a compound noun:
- Stelle = job, position (in this context)
- Ausschreibung = announcement/invitation for applications
Put together, Stellenausschreibung = “job advertisement”, “job posting”, or “vacancy notice”.
Grammar info:
- Gender: die Stellenausschreibung
- Plural: die Stellenausschreibungen
The preposition in can take either dative or accusative:
- Dative = location (where something is)
- Accusative = direction (where something is going to)
Here we are talking about where the information is (in the job ad), so it’s a location:
- Wo steht es? – In der Stellenausschreibung. → dative (der)
You would only use in die Stellenausschreibung (accusative) for movement into the ad, e.g. etwas in die Stellenausschreibung aufnehmen – “to add something into the job posting”.
Dass is a subordinating conjunction meaning “that” (in reported speech or reported content).
It introduces a subordinate clause: dass Teamarbeit und Flexibilität wichtig sind.
Rules:
- In German, every dass-clause must be separated by a comma from the main clause.
- Dass sends the conjugated verb of its clause to the end (here: sind).
So:
- Main clause: In der Stellenausschreibung steht, …
- Subordinate clause: dass Teamarbeit und Flexibilität wichtig sind.
The comma marks the boundary between these two clauses.
In this sentence, dass with ss is a conjunction meaning “that” (linking clauses).
Das with one s is something else:
- article: das Buch – “the book”
- demonstrative pronoun: Das ist gut. – “That is good.”
- relative pronoun: Das Buch, das ich lese, ist spannend. – “The book that I’m reading is exciting.”
A quick test: if you can replace it with dieses, jenes, or welches, then you need das, not dass.
Here you cannot say „In der Stellenausschreibung steht, dieses Teamarbeit …“, so you know it must be dass.
Because dass introduces a subordinate clause. In German subordinate clauses:
- the conjugated verb goes to the end of the clause.
Compare:
- Main clause: Teamarbeit und Flexibilität sind wichtig. (verb in 2nd position)
- Subordinate clause with dass: …, dass Teamarbeit und Flexibilität wichtig sind. (verb at the end)
So the pattern is:
- dass
- subject + rest of the information + verb at the end.
The subject of the dass-clause is Teamarbeit und Flexibilität – that is two things joined by und.
A subject with und is normally plural in German, so you need the plural verb:
- Teamarbeit ist wichtig. – “Teamwork is important.” (only one subject)
- Flexibilität ist wichtig. – “Flexibility is important.”
- Teamarbeit und Flexibilität sind wichtig. – “Teamwork and flexibility are important.”
That’s why you say sind (plural), not ist (singular).
In the subordinate clause the conjugated verb must come last because of dass.
The predicate adjective wichtig stays right next to the verb, but the verb still has to be the last element:
- Main clause: Teamarbeit und Flexibilität sind wichtig.
- Subordinate clause: …, dass Teamarbeit und Flexibilität wichtig sind.
You cannot say … dass Teamarbeit und Flexibilität sind wichtig, because then sind would no longer be at the very end.
Abstract nouns and uncountable concepts in German often appear without an article when talking about them in a general way:
- Teamarbeit ist wichtig. – “Teamwork is important.”
- Flexibilität ist wichtig. – “Flexibility is important.”
- Geduld ist eine Tugend. – “Patience is a virtue.”
In the sentence, Teamarbeit and Flexibilität are meant as general qualities required for the job, not specific instances, so no article is needed.
You could add an article in some contexts to make it more specific (e.g. die Flexibilität der Mitarbeiter – “the flexibility of the employees”), but here the general, article-less form is natural.
All nouns in German are capitalized, including abstract nouns and those formed from verbs or adjectives.
- Teamarbeit is a noun (a type of work), even though it contains the verb arbeiten.
- Flexibilität is a noun derived from the adjective flexibel.
Typical noun endings like -ung, -keit, -heit, -ität (as in Flexibilität) are always capitalized because they are nouns by definition.
In standard, neutral German you normally do not leave out dass in this structure.
More natural alternatives are:
- In der Stellenausschreibung steht, dass Teamarbeit und Flexibilität wichtig sind. (with dass)
- In der Stellenausschreibung steht: Teamarbeit und Flexibilität sind wichtig. (colon + full main clause)
Without dass and without a colon, In der Stellenausschreibung steht, Teamarbeit und Flexibilität sind wichtig sounds incorrect or at least very clumsy in standard written German.
Yes, you can. Both are common and correct:
- In der Stellenausschreibung steht, dass …
- In der Stellenausschreibung heißt es, dass …
Both mean roughly “In the job posting it says that …”.
Steht emphasizes that the words are written there.
Heißt es is a bit more neutral/formal and focuses on the content/wording rather than the physical text, but in many contexts they are interchangeable.