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From Zwei Tote, hohe Sachschäden: Schwere Unwetter in Teilen Deutschlands, tagesschau.de, 20 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
At least two people have died in severe storms in several federal states.
Word for word: With heavy storms in several federal states are at least two people around-the-life come.
A news-style report stating that severe storms in several German federal states have killed at least two people.
A main clause in the perfect tense with sein as auxiliary. 'ums Leben kommen' is a fixed expression; the separable prefix 'um' of 'umkommen' appears here inside the idiom. The participle 'gekommen' stands at the end, verb-second position holds the finite auxiliary 'sind', fronted by the temporal prepositional phrase.
Rules at work(7)
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sind ... gekommen
kommen forms its perfect with sein as an intransitive verb of motion/change of state.
Verbs of motion from one place to another and verbs of change of state take sein rather than haben in the perfect, along with sein, werden and bleiben themselves. Er ist gegangen, not er hat gegangen.
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Bei schweren Unwettern ... sind mindestens zwei Menschen
The fronted adverbial occupies first position, so the finite verb must be second.
In a German main clause the finite verb is always the second element. The first element can be the subject, but it can just as easily be a time expression, an object or a whole subordinate clause; whatever it is, it counts as one element and the verb follows it. This is why putting something other than the subject first pushes the subject after the verb.
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Bei schweren Unwettern
bei always governs the dative, hence Unwettern with dative plural -n.
Aus, außer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von and zu always take the dative. Several of them contract with the article: von dem becomes vom, zu der becomes zur.
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in mehreren Bundesländern
in takes dative here because it expresses location, not direction.
An, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor and zwischen take the accusative when the phrase answers where to, and the dative when it answers where. The distinction is movement across a boundary against position, not motion against stillness.
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Unwettern, Bundesländern, Leben
Each noun's gender determines its article and endings; Unwetter and Bundesland are neuter, Leben neuter.
Every German noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. The gender is a property of the word rather than of the thing it names, and it decides the form of every article, adjective and pronoun that refers to it, so it has to be learned with the noun.
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Unwettern, Bundesländern, Menschen
Shows three plural patterns plus the dative plural -n.
German forms plurals in five main ways: adding e, er, en, s, or nothing at all, often with an umlaut on the stem vowel. The plural is not predictable from the singular and is learned with the noun.
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Menschen
Mensch belongs to the weak nouns taking -(e)n in all cases except nominative singular; here it is the plural anyway.
A group of masculine nouns takes an n or en in every case but the nominative singular: der Student but den Studenten, dem Studenten, des Studenten. Most denote people and many end in e, ent, ist or ant.
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Words(12)
- bei
at, near, with
prepositionA2governs dative
'bei 42 Prozent' = 'at 42 percent', standard in poll reporting.
- schwer
heavy, severe, difficult
adjectiveA2schwerer, am schwersten
- das Unwetter
storm, severe weather
nounB1pl. Unwettergen. Unwettersstrong declension
- in
in, into
prepositionA1governs accusative or dative
Dative for location, accusative for direction.
- mehrere
several
pronounA2indefinite
- das Bundesland
federal state (of Germany)
nounB1pl. Bundesländergen. Bundeslandesmixed declension
- sein
to be
verbA1sein, war, ist gewesenmit seinirregular
Copula here linking subject to predicate noun.
- mindestens
at least
adverbB1degree
- zwei
two
numeralA1
- der Mensch
human being, person
nounA1pl. Menschengen. Menschenweak declension
Weak n-declension: the genitive singular is Menschen and every plural form is Menschen.
- das Leben
life
nounA1pl. Lebengen. Lebensstrong declension
In 'ums Leben kommen' it appears only with the contracted preposition 'ums'; do not translate word by word.
- kommen
to come
verbA1kommen, kam, ist gekommenmit seinstrong
Figurative here: the decisions should 'come', i.e. appear soon.