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From Fruchtnektar und Haferdrink: Bundesregierung will geplante Zuckersteuer ausweiten, tagesschau.de, 25 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
A key-points paper that has been passed to the ARD capital studio shows this.
Word for word: That shows a key-points-paper, which to-the ARD-capital-studio before-lies.
Typical news-register phrasing: the fact just reported is backed by a working paper that ARD's Berlin studio has received or has sight of. English would more naturally say 'a paper seen by the ARD capital studio shows this'.
In the main clause the object 'Das' is fronted for emphasis, so the finite verb 'zeigt' must stay in second position and the subject 'ein Eckpunktepapier' follows it. The relative clause 'das dem ARD-Hauptstadtstudio vorliegt' modifies 'Eckpunktepapier': the relative pronoun 'das' is its subject, and the finite verb stands at the end of the clause. 'Vorliegen' is separable (vor|liegen), but in a subordinate clause the prefix remains attached to the finite verb. The party holding the document, 'dem ARD-Hauptstadtstudio', is in the dative because 'vorliegen' governs the dative.
Rules at work(11)
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Das zeigt
The object 'Das' is fronted for emphasis, so the finite verb 'zeigt' must still occupy second position and the subject is pushed behind it.
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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das dem ARD-Hauptstadtstudio vorliegt
The relative pronoun 'das' picks up the neuter 'Eckpunktepapier' and opens a clause that describes the paper.
A relative pronoun takes its gender and number from the noun it refers back to, and its case from the job it does inside the relative clause. The clause is verb-final and always separated by a comma.
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das dem ARD-Hauptstadtstudio vorliegt
In the relative clause the finite verb 'vorliegt' moves to the end, contrasting with the verb-second main clause.
In a subordinate clause the finite verb stands last. Where the clause also holds a participle or an infinitive, the finite verb goes after them, so the order at the end is participle then auxiliary.
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vorliegt
Main-clause word order would split vor|liegen ('das Papier liegt ... vor'), but in this subordinate clause the prefix stays attached to the finite verb at the end.
Some verbs carry a prefix that detaches in a main clause and moves to the very end: aufstehen becomes Ich stehe um sieben auf. The prefix is stressed, which is what tells a separable prefix from an inseparable one. In a subordinate clause and in the infinitive the verb stays whole.
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dem ARD-Hauptstadtstudio
'Vorliegen' puts the holder of the document in the dative, hence 'dem' rather than 'das'.
The dative marks the indirect object, usually the person something is given, said or shown to. A number of common verbs take a dative object where English would use a direct one, and several prepositions always take it.
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Das
The demonstrative is the direct object of 'zeigen'; the accusative form happens to look like the nominative.
The accusative marks the direct object: the thing the action is done to. Only the masculine changes visibly, from der to den and from ein to einen, which is why the masculine is where accusative errors show.
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ein Eckpunktepapier
The noun phrase is the subject of 'zeigt' and therefore nominative even though it follows the verb.
The nominative marks the subject of the clause: whoever or whatever is doing the verb. It is also the case used after the verbs sein, werden and bleiben, so both sides of Das ist mein Bruder stand in the nominative.
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ein Eckpunktepapier
'Ein' presents the paper as new information and takes no ending in the neuter nominative.
Ein and eine decline like the definite article except that the masculine nominative and the neuter nominative and accusative carry no ending. Kein and the possessives follow exactly the same pattern.
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ein Eckpunktepapier
Both compounds are neuter ('das Papier', 'das Studio'), which determines the article forms 'ein' and 'dem'.
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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zeigt
Simple present is the normal tense for reporting current facts in German news prose, where English often uses the perfect.
The present describes what is happening now, what happens habitually, and very often what is going to happen, since German uses the present with a time expression where English would use a future.
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zeigt
The -t ending marks third-person singular agreement with the singular subjects 'ein Eckpunktepapier' and, in the relative clause, 'das'.
The finite verb takes an ending that matches its subject in person and number. The endings for regular verbs in the present are e, st, t, en, t, en.
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Words(7)
- das
that, what
pronounA1demonstrative
Before a comma, das is usually a pronoun introducing a relative clause, not the article.
- zeigen
to show, to point
verbA2zeigen, zeigte, hat gezeigtmit habenweak
In 'sich zeigen + adjective' it means 'to appear/prove to be', not literally 'to show something'.
- ein
a, an, one
determinerA1indefinite
The form einer here is dative feminine singular, not the pronoun meaning 'one'.
- das Eckpunktepapier
key-points paper, outline paper, framework paper
nounC1pl. Eckpunktepapieregen. Eckpunktepapiersstrong declension
Political and journalistic jargon for an early document from a government or negotiating side listing the main points of a planned policy; found in news texts, not everyday talk.
- der
the
determinerA1definite
Appears twice: dative feminine 'der Wirtschaft' and nominative plural 'die Beschlüsse'.
- das ARD-Hauptstadtstudio
ARD capital studio (ARD's Berlin studio)
nounC2pl. ARD-Hauptstadtstudiosgen. ARD-Hauptstadtstudiosstrong declension
Proper name of the Berlin studio of ARD, the umbrella organisation of German public broadcasters; treat it as a fixed name.
- vorliegen
to be available (to somebody), to have been submitted (to somebody), to be on the table
verbB2vorliegen, lag vor, hat vorgelegenmit habenseparablestronggoverns dative
The person who has the document goes in the dative: 'Dem Ausschuss liegt der Bericht vor.' Very frequent in news meaning 'a document has been obtained/is circulating'.