Breakdown of Meine Nebenbeschäftigung als Nachhilfelehrerin passt gut zu meinem Studium.
Questions & Answers about Meine Nebenbeschäftigung als Nachhilfelehrerin passt gut zu meinem Studium.
Because Nebenbeschäftigung is grammatically feminine in German.
- Feminine nouns use meine in the nominative singular:
- meine Arbeit, meine Tasche, meine Freundin, meine Nebenbeschäftigung
If the noun were masculine or neuter, you would use mein:
- Masculine: mein Job
- Neuter: mein Studium
All three can refer to work you do in addition to something else, but they differ slightly in tone and typical use:
Nebenbeschäftigung
- Literally: “secondary occupation/activity”
- Slightly more formal or neutral, can refer to any secondary activity that brings in money, not necessarily a typical “job” in the casual sense.
Nebenjob
- More colloquial and very common among students.
- Literally: “side job” – often a small paid job next to studies/school.
Teilzeitjob
- Literally: “part-time job” – specifically about working fewer hours than full-time.
- Not necessarily “next to” something; it’s just a job with fewer hours.
In this sentence, Nebenbeschäftigung sounds a bit more formal than Nebenjob, but Mein Nebenjob als Nachhilfelehrerin passt gut zu meinem Studium would also be perfectly natural.
Nachhilfelehrerin is a compound:
- Nachhilfe = private tutoring (extra help outside regular school/university classes)
- Lehrer = teacher (masculine base form)
- Lehrerin = female teacher (with feminine ending -in)
So Nachhilfelehrerin = female private-tutoring teacher.
Masculine and generic forms:
- Masculine: Nachhilfelehrer
- Generic (formal, gender-inclusive writing): Nachhilfelehrkraft, Nachhilfelehrer*innen, etc. (varies by style)
In this structure, als is used to express a role, function, or capacity:
- Meine Nebenbeschäftigung als Nachhilfelehrerin
= My side occupation in the role of / as a tutor.
Als is used with professions, roles, or identities:
- Ich arbeite als Kellner. – I work as a waiter.
- Sie ist als Managerin angestellt. – She is employed as a manager.
Wie is used more for comparisons of equality:
- Er arbeitet wie ein Verrückter. – He works like a madman.
So for jobs/roles, you use als, not wie.
Here Nachhilfelehrerin is in the nominative.
In meine Nebenbeschäftigung als Nachhilfelehrerin, the phrase als Nachhilfelehrerin describes Nebenbeschäftigung (it’s a kind of apposition or role description). With als used to specify a role like this, the noun is normally in the nominative:
- Meine Arbeit als Kellner
- Sein Job als Fahrer
There is no article or adjective in front of Nachhilfelehrerin, so you only see the base form, which for feminine nominative singular is identical to many other cases.
passen on its own (with a person in the dative) often means “to be convenient / to suit someone”:
- Der Termin passt mir. – The appointment suits me / works for me.
passen zu means “to go well with / to be a good match for”:
- Die Schuhe passen gut zu der Hose. – The shoes go well with the trousers.
- Meine Nebenbeschäftigung … passt gut zu meinem Studium. – … goes well with / fits well with my studies.
gut is just an adverb intensifying it: passt gut zu = “fits well with” (as opposed to just “fits with”).
Because zu is a preposition that always takes the dative case.
- The noun is das Studium (neuter).
- Dative singular of das Studium with the possessive mein is:
- zu meinem Studium
Declension pattern with mein (neuter, singular):
- Nominative: mein Studium
- Accusative: mein Studium
- Dative: meinem Studium
- Genitive: meines Studiums
Since zu requires dative, you need meinem, not mein.
Grammatical gender in German is largely arbitrary and must be memorized. Studium happens to be neuter:
- das Studium – the studies / degree course
Singular declension:
- Nominative: das Studium
- Accusative: das Studium
- Dative: dem Studium
- Genitive: des Studiums
With mein:
- Nominative: mein Studium
- Accusative: mein Studium
- Dative: meinem Studium
- Genitive: meines Studiums
Plural of das Studium is die Studien:
- Meine Studien passen gut zu meinem Beruf.
Yes, that is correct German.
Key rules:
- The finite verb (passt) must be in second position in a main clause.
- You can move Zu meinem Studium to the beginning for emphasis, but passt must still be the second element.
Possible variants:
- Meine Nebenbeschäftigung als Nachhilfelehrerin passt gut zu meinem Studium. (neutral)
- Zu meinem Studium passt meine Nebenbeschäftigung als Nachhilfelehrerin gut. (emphasizes the relation to your studies)
You cannot move passt away from the second position in a main clause.
The original … passt gut zu meinem Studium is the most natural.
Other possibilities:
- … passt sehr gut zu meinem Studium. (adding sehr before gut)
- … passt gut zu meinem Studium (standard)
- … passt zu meinem Studium gut. – possible, but sounds a bit unusual; it gives extra emphasis to gut at the end.
Rule of thumb: short adverbs like gut usually come directly after the verb if there is a following prepositional phrase:
- Es passt gut zu X.
- Das funktioniert gut in der Praxis.
In German, all nouns are capitalized.
- Nebenbeschäftigung – noun (side occupation)
- Nachhilfelehrerin – noun (female tutor)
- Studium – noun (course of study / studies)
This also applies to all compound nouns:
- Nachhilfe
- Lehrerin → Nachhilfelehrerin (still a noun, so capitalized)
Yes, mainly in tone:
Meine Nebenbeschäftigung als Nachhilfelehrerin
- Slightly more formal or neutral.
- Could be used in a CV, cover letter, or formal text.
Mein Nebenjob als Nachhilfelehrerin
- More colloquial and very common in everyday speech, especially among students.
- Sounds more casual.
Both are correct; which one you choose depends mostly on how formal you want to sound.