To enhance my language learning experience I’ve been watching foreign language films. Anyway there was a statement made in a film I watched recently. It was this:
Die Bauern fangen an das Wort Gottes zuhören mehr und mehr.
It means - The farmers are beginning to listen to the word of god more and more.
My question is with the separable verb “anfangen”. Why is the “an” not at the very end of the statement? I assume it has something to do with the way the clause is constructed but I am curious.
I believe it might have something to do with the verb in the second part.
Maybe it’s similar to “start to do something”.
Die Bauern fangen an das Wort Gottes zu hören.
It’s “zu hören” (to hear) and not “zuhören” (listen). “zu” can be translated as “to”, but if the word means “listen” its part of the word. If you want to say “to listen” it’s “zu zuhören”.
The “mehr und mehr” at the end doesn’t sound natural to me. I would say: “Die Bauern fangen an das Wort Gottes mehr und mehr zu hören.”
Yes I, like you, believe that is what is actually being said and I was thinking they were using the separable verb zuhören.
The person saying this is Dieter Laser who is a native speaker so I’m a little confused at the syntax (mehr und mehr at the end, etc).
Also - "Die Bauern fangen an Das Wort Gottes zu hören mehr und mehr.
Like you I believe that “hören” is causing anfangen to takes it’s prefix directly after the main verb instead of at the end. So I suppose the actual translation could be:
The farmers are beginning to hear the word of god more and more.