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From Warken zu Reformvorhaben: "Nicht im Voraus schon Dinge tot reden", tagesschau.de, 25 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
Pensions, care, health, cutting red tape - the list of pending reforms is long.
Word for word: Pension, care, health, bureaucracy-reduction - the list of the upcoming reforms is long.
Used in news or political commentary to enumerate several reform areas awaiting action; the dash introduces an apposition-like list that the following clause comments on.
A statement with a fronted list of four noun phrases (three single nouns and one compound noun) set off by a dash, followed by a main clause in verb-second order: subject 'die Liste' with definite article, prepositional attribute 'der anstehenden Reformen' in genitive plural, predicate 'ist lang'.
Rules at work(5)
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die Liste ... ist lang
The main clause keeps the finite verb ist in second position even though a long list precedes 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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der anstehenden Reformen
The genitive plural phrase expresses what the list consists of, an attribute of Liste.
The genitive shows possession and follows a small set of prepositions. Masculine and neuter nouns add s or es. In speech it is often replaced by von plus the dative, but it is alive in writing and in fixed expressions.
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die Liste
The article die shows Liste is feminine and governs agreement.
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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anstehenden
The present participle of anstehen functions as an attributive adjective before the noun.
Both participles can stand before a noun and take ordinary adjective endings. The past participle is passive in sense, the present participle active: das gekochte Ei against das kochende Wasser.
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Bürokratieabbau
Two nouns are joined without a hyphen to form one compound noun.
German builds long nouns by joining shorter ones. The last part carries the gender and the plural, and everything before it modifies what follows, so a compound is read from the right.
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Words(11)
- Rente
pension, retirement
nounA2
Usually means the state old-age pension; rent (housing) is die Miete, a classic false friend.
- die Pflege
care, nursing
nounB1pl. Pflegengen. Pflegemixed declension
- Gesundheit
health
nounA1
- Bürokratieabbau
cutting red tape, reduction of bureaucracy
nounC1
- die
the
determinerA1definite
- Liste
list
nounA2
- der
the
determinerA1definite
Appears twice: dative feminine 'der Wirtschaft' and nominative plural 'die Beschlüsse'.
- anstehend
pending, upcoming, awaiting
adjectiveC1
- die Reform
reform
nounB1pl. Reformengen. Reformmixed declension
- sein
to be
verbA1sein, war, ist gewesenmit seinirregular
Copula here linking subject to predicate noun.
- lang
long
adjectiveA1länger, am längsten
Postposed after a noun phrase it means 'for (the whole span of)': ihr Leben lang.