"She has a friend."

Translation: Sie hat einen Freund.

[Mrwolf16]

Friend doest specify gender, give freundin as an extra correct answer, ofcourse, but dont count freund as a false answer, this ones your mistake duolingo, fix it :p

[Kimberley_777]

Why does it have to einen Freund and not ein Freund?

[Robbadob]

Ein Freund is masculine, so it takes a special ending in the accusative (whenever something is acting on it) and becomes einen Freund. This doesn't happen with feminine or neuter nouns.

Sie hat einen Freund.
Sie acts on ein Freund, changing it to einen Freund.

Sie hat eine Freundin.
Sie acts on eine Freundin, but nothing changes because it's feminine. It's still in the accusative case, it just doesn't have a distinct form.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_articles#Declension
Right now, you just have to worry about the nominative and accusative cases, or the top half of the chart.

[LucasNavarroCruz]

einen Freund

eine Freundin

[Joseph243969]

This bug is driving me crazy, it's asking me to put einen Freundin and once I do it, it marks as wrong and goes to Einen Freund.

[Mr.LoqLaq]

is it wrong if i answer "einen Freund hat Sie"?

[kassidy9812]

Yessss!!!!!

[drspin]

Wouldn't both answers 1 and 2 be right as her friend could be of either gender?

[GingerQuery]

The article they provide is masculine for all three; only the masculine form of Freund would comply.

[PushythePirate1]

Why can it not be ein Freund?

[momokoala]

Because "a friend" is the object of the sentence, making it accusative. Der is the only article that changes in the accusative case. So Ein Freund -> Einen Freund.