Finding the restroom during a lesson break | Learn German in English

Sentence explanations

1. Wie lange dauert die Pause?

   How long is the break?

   Wie lange

   how long

   dauert

   lasts

   Pause

   break

   More detail

   Wie lange asks about duration: “how long.” It is a reusable question pattern for asking the length of an ongoing period or activity. For example, Wie lange dauert der Film? means “How long is the film?” dauert is the present-tense form of dauern for a third-person singular subject. dauern means “to last”; dauert means “lasts.” The form agrees with the singular subject die Pause. For example, Der Kurs dauert eine Stunde. means “The course lasts one hour.” die Pause means “the break.” Pause is a feminine noun, so its definite article is die in the nominative singular here. The article identifies the break as a specific one in the situation; it does not itself state a numerical quantity. In this question, Wie lange comes first, followed by the finite verb dauert, then the subject die Pause: Wie lange dauert die Pause? German questions of this type commonly place the question phrase first and the finite verb second. Together, the utterance asks for the duration of the break: “How long is the break?”

2. Die Pause dauert zehn Minuten.

   The break is ten minutes long.

   Pause

   break

   dauert

   lasts

   zehn

   ten

   Minuten

   minutes

   More detail

   Pause means a break or pause. The noun is feminine in German, so this sentence uses the feminine definite article die: die Pause. The plural is Pausen, as in zwei Pausen (“two breaks”). dauert comes from the verb dauern, “to last.” dauert is the present-tense form for er, sie, or es, and here agrees with the singular subject die Pause. A useful pattern is Die Pause dauert ... (“The break lasts ...”). zehn is the number ten. German number words do not change for grammatical gender in this use. For example, zehn Minuten means “ten minutes.” Minuten is the plural of Minute, “minute.” After a number greater than one, German uses the plural: eine Minute (“one minute”), but zehn Minuten (“ten minutes”). Together, Die Pause is the subject, dauert says how long it lasts, and zehn Minuten gives the duration. Thus Die Pause dauert zehn Minuten. means “The break is ten minutes long.”

3. Wo ist die Toilette?

   Where is the restroom?

   Wo

   where

   ist

   is

   Toilette

   restroom

   More detail

   Wo asks for a location: “where?” It is used when the unknown information is a place or position. Example: Wo ist der Bahnhof? — “Where is the train station?” ist is the third-person singular present form of sein, “to be.” The useful present-tense forms include ich bin (“I am”), du bist (“you are”), and er/sie/es ist (“he/she/it is”). Here, ist agrees with the singular noun phrase die Toilette. Toilette means “restroom” here. It is a feminine German noun, so the definite article is die: die Toilette. German nouns are capitalized. Example: Die Toilette ist dort. — “The restroom is there.” Together, Wo ist die Toilette? literally asks where the restroom is, producing the natural meaning “Where is the restroom?” This is a reusable German pattern for asking where a singular place or object is: Wo ist + noun phrase?

4. Geh aus dem Raum und dann nach rechts.

   Go out of the room and turn right.

   Geh

   go

   aus dem Raum

   out of the room

   dann

   then

   nach rechts

   to the right

   More detail

   Geh is the informal singular imperative of gehen (“to go”). It is used when addressing one person directly: Geh nach Hause. — “Go home.” The imperative form for one familiar addressee is different from forms used with ihr or Sie. aus dem Raum means “out of the room.” aus expresses movement out of an interior place and takes the dative here. dem is the dative singular form of the masculine noun der Raum (“the room”): aus dem Raum. Compare location without movement: im Raum — “in the room.” dann means “then” and orders the next action in time. Example: Zuerst links, dann rechts. — “First left, then right.” nach rechts indicates movement or direction toward the right. rechts means “right” as a direction, and nach is commonly used with compass directions and directional adverbs, as in nach links (“to the left”) and nach rechts (“to the right”). The conjunction und connects the two instructions. First, Geh aus dem Raum tells the listener to go out of the room; und dann nach rechts adds the next direction, to the right. Together, the utterance means “Go out of the room and turn right.”

5. Ich glaube, ich kann sie finden.

   I think I can find it.

   glaube

   think, believe

   kann

   can; be able to

   sie

   it

   finden

   find

   More detail

   glaube is the first-person singular present form of glauben (“to believe” or “to think”). With Ich glaube, German commonly introduces a personal opinion or belief: Ich glaube, ... = “I think ...”. Example: Ich glaube, er kommt. — “I think he is coming.” kann is the first-person singular present form of können (“can; be able to”). Here it expresses ability. As a modal verb, können combines with an infinitive; in this clause, the infinitive appears at the end: Ich kann helfen. — “I can help.” sie is the object pronoun for the intended singular “it” in the translation. In this use, its form is feminine singular accusative; German pronouns reflect grammatical gender, so a feminine noun can be replaced by sie. The written form sie can also serve other grammatical roles in other contexts, including plural “they” or “them”; the surrounding sentence and fixed translation establish the intended reading here. finden is the infinitive “to find.” It remains in the infinitive because it follows the modal verb kann. Example: Ich kann den Schlüssel finden. — “I can find the key.” Together, Ich glaube gives the speaker’s opinion, and ich kann sie finden says that the speaker is able to find the intended object. The modal construction places kann in the conjugated position and finden at the end, producing the meaning “I think I can find it.”

6. Ich warte hier, bevor der Unterricht wieder anfängt.

   I will wait here before class starts again.

   Ich

   I

   warte

   wait

   hier

   here

   bevor

   before

   Unterricht

   class

   wieder

   again

   anfängt

   starts

   More detail

   Ich is the first-person singular pronoun, meaning “I.” It identifies the speaker as the subject. German contrasts it with du (“you,” singular informal) and wir (“we”). warte comes from warten (“to wait”). It is the first-person singular present form: ich warte. German present tense can refer to a future action when the time is clear from context; here, the translation therefore uses “will wait.” Example: Ich warte draußen. — “I am waiting outside.” hier means “here,” referring to the speaker’s location. It is an adverb, so it does not change for gender or number. Example: Wir bleiben hier. — “We are staying here.” bevor means “before” and introduces a subordinate clause describing an event that has not yet occurred relative to the waiting. In a German subordinate clause introduced by bevor, the finite verb goes to the end. Unterricht means “class” or “lessons” in this context. It is a masculine noun: der Unterricht. Here der marks the noun phrase as nominative because it is the subject of anfängt. The noun is generally used as an uncountable activity or institution rather than as a count of individual classes. wieder means “again,” indicating that the class starts once more or resumes after an earlier occurrence. It modifies the event anfängt; it is not part of the noun Unterricht. anfängt comes from the separable verb anfangen (“to start” or “to begin”). It is the third-person singular present form: er/sie/es fängt an; in the subordinate clause, the parts appear together at the end as anfängt. The vowel change from a to ä belongs to this present-tense form. Example: Der Film fängt an. — “The film starts.” The main clause Ich warte hier means “I will wait here.” The subordinate clause bevor der Unterricht wieder anfängt means “before class starts again.” Together, they form: “I will wait here before class starts again.” The comma separates the main clause from the following subordinate clause. bevor places the class’s starting event after the waiting in the intended time sequence.