Da meine Schwester heute früh losmuss, macht sie sich nur ein schnelles Rührei.

today

Breakdown of Da meine Schwester heute früh losmuss, macht sie sich nur ein schnelles Rührei.

• früh: early
• machen: to make
• sie: she

Questions & Answers about Da meine Schwester heute früh losmuss, macht sie sich nur ein schnelles Rührei.

Why does the sentence start with da? Doesn’t da usually mean there?

Not here. In this sentence, da is a subordinating conjunction meaning since, as, or because.

So:

• Da meine Schwester heute früh losmuss = Since my sister has to leave early today

This is different from da meaning there.

A useful nuance:

• da often sounds like the reason is background information or something the speaker treats as already understandable.
• weil could often be used instead, but da is especially common at the beginning of a sentence like this.

Why is losmuss written as one word here? I thought you said muss los.

Good question. This is because losmüssen behaves like a separable verb in this kind of structure.

Compare:

• Main clause: Sie muss heute früh los.
• Subordinate clause: ..., da sie heute früh losmuss.

So in a main clause, the parts are split:

• muss ... los

But in a subordinate clause, the finite verb goes to the end, and the separated part joins it:

• losmuss

This is very similar to other separable verbs:

• Er fängt an.
• ..., weil er anfängt.

So losmuss is normal here.

Is losmüssen a normal verb?