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German inflects its adjectives, articles and pronouns in three cases: nominative (for subject and subject complement), accusative (for direct object and with some prepositions), dative (for some other prepositions).
The accusative of indeterminative article changes just for the masculine gender: EIN/DER are the masculine articles for subjects or for names which came after to be (or other copulas);
EINEN/DEN are the masculine articles for direct odjects (that come after transitive verbs).
they are grammatical cases ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_case ) in some european languages they are used to express the role of a word in a sentence.
Even English have some words that are declinated in three "cases" (nominative and accusative) they are I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
You can imagine that I is in nominative case, because it has the function of subject, me is the accusative case because it's used for the direct object.
(it is not grammarly correct, but it can help you to understand)
cases are this: something that change words without changing their meaning, but changing the meaning of the sentence: I am me! "I" and "me" is the same person! but "me like choccolate" doesn't mean "I like choccolate" because they have different functions.
I hope it helps you: I don't know how to explain it more simply :)
You should add a like button to like a reply in case you want to come back to it
why is she thumbed down for not understanding? I suggest watching a YouTube video on this subject of accusative. It really helped me understand this concept of der becoming einen or den. I was confused for a long time until I researched it more. What Silvia says is spot on, but I needed further research to understand it the way I do now.
No, this is wrong answer! No, this is wrong answer! "der, den des, dem" also eine, einen, eines, einem!
ich habe ;
du hast (you have) ;
er hat ;
sie hat ;
es hat ;
wir haben ;
ihr habt (plural you have) ;
sie haben ;
Sie haben ;
-----Just different forms of "have" :)
when you conjugate the verb HABEN (TO HAVE) ''hast'' is used with the singular informal ''you'' and ''habt'' is used with the plural informal ''you''
You've got it exactly the wrong way around.
du hast is singular, ihr habt is plural.
GUYS how do you know when to put einen eine or ein? I never know which one to put! :( pleas help
It depends on the case or the sentence - Nominative, Accusative or Dative. Nominative: Masculine = Ein, Feminine = Eine, Neutral = Ein (Plural = Eine) Accusative: Masculine = Einen, Feminine = Eine, Neutral = Ein (Plural = Eine) (ONLY MASCULINE CHANGES) Dative: Masculine = Einem, Feminine = Einer, Neutral = Einem (Plural = Einen) (THEY ALL CHANGE)
The ending applies to Der, Die and Das / Mein and Kein also.... for example
Nominative: Masculine = Der/Ein/Mein/Kein. Feminine = Die/Eine/Meine/Keine. Neutral = Das/Ein/Mein/Kein Accusative: Masculine = Den/Einen/Meinen/Keinen. Feminine = Die/Eine/Meine/Keine (same as nominative). Neutral = Das/Ein/Mein/Kein (also the name as nominative) Dative: Masculine = Dem/Einem/Meinem/Keinem. Feminine = Der/Einer/Meiner/Keiner. Neutral = Dem/Einem/Meinem/Keinem
I really hope this helps! To explain when a sentence is Nominative, Accusative or Dative is much more complicated!
Do objects always have to be capitalized in German even if they are not at the beginning of a sentence ? Apfel, Brot...
Yes, nouns are always capitalized in German. Those also can be words like "der Instinkt" or "die Ironie" or "das Joggen" (the jogging).
For example: die Frage (the question) - eine Frage, accusative: Ich habe eine Frage. Das Brot (bread) - ein Brot, accusative: Ich habe ein Brot. Der Apfel - ein Apfel, accusative: Ich habe einen Apfel. Only the masculine articles der and ein change in the accusative case to den and einen. The neuter ein (Brot) does not change in the accusative.
Thanks! I was wondering about that too. I wish they would note that in the translations.
Du would be you for singular like "You come here" but ihr is for plural like " You all good?" It would be "Ihr alle gut?" in german.
If there is only one person then"you" is "du" (or "Sie"). If there are more persons then "you" is "ihr" (or "Sie").: Du und dein Bruder (you and your brother), ihr habt jeder einen Apfel (you have each an apple).
why after du we are using hast? and after ihr we are using habt? for have
So it is easier to distinguish whether one person is meant or more than one are. If I say to my friend: "Du hast ja ein neues Auto." then I mean only my friend has it. If I say to him: "Ihr habt ja ein neues Auto." then I speak about his whole family.
So stupid question. Here is "Du hast einen Apfel" is that sentance saying "You have an apple" to a person who most certainly knows he has an apple? Or is "Du hast einen Apfel" asking do you have an apple? asking a question?
Thanks, Robert
Du hast einen Apfel. is a statement.
A yes–no question would have the verb first: Hast du einen Apfel?
You could say that; the emphasis would be a bit different -- closer to "What you have is an apple" or "An apple is what you have".
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I know it would be outdated, but could "Du hast" be translated into "Thou hast"?
Not on this course (because that would be outdated).
Those would be the cognate (historically related) forms, though
Please, someone help me :(. Why they use ''ein'' and ''einen'' if there's ''der'' and ''den''??
Ein means "a" or "an" in English. "Der" means "the" in English. It's the difference between saying you have an apple or you have the apple. Using "der/den" suggests some specifics that using "ein/einen" does not because it is emphasizing that you have THE apple, perhaps as opposed to having something else.
Nope, einen is the accusative case of ein. "Have" is a transitive verb, and so apple is the object of the sentence. So "ein Apfel" becomes "einen Apfel" when it changes from subject to direct object, i.e., from nominative --> accusative case.[For a neutral noun, e.g., das Kind, the indefinitie article is ein in both cases, only the masculine case changes.] Hope that helps!
I still have a hard time with understanding the words nominative/accusative and definite/indefinite. Can you please expand with examples? Thanks and happy new year !
There are three main cases to understand to get a good basic understanding of German. NOMINATIVE, ACCUSATIVE & DATIVE. Word endings change based on this and it is not a quick or easy thing to explain. Try reading this ... http://www.jabbalab.com/blog/795/how-the-german-cases-work-nominative-accusative-dative-and-genitive
Du hast is the singular you, while Ihr habt is the plural you.
"Du hast einen Apfel." "[You] have an apple." "Ihr habt einen Apfel." "[You all] have an apple."
I like to think of "Ihr" as the U.S. Southern slang "y'all" that we tend to use for a plural "you."
Why can't it be "Du 'habe' einen Apfel"? Why is it "Du 'hast' einen Apfel"?
Because habe belongs to Ich, and hast belongs to du. The verb changes depending on the personal pronoun. There should be some good tables on the internet giving examples of how the verb changes for different personal pronouns. It's not as simple as English in this sense! Good luck :)
In English we put "an" in front of any word following that starts with a vowel. Apple starts with the vowel "A". If it was Banana it would just be "a" Banana because B is not a vowel. However if it were an Orange, well Orange starts with the vowel "O".
Think of adding the "n" to keep the "a" and the next vowel apart.
Clarification - "an" precedes any word that starts with a vowel sound, even if the first letter is not actually a vowel. For example: "an honor".
Similarly, "a" precedes any word that starts with a consonant sound even if the first letter is actually a vowel. For example: "a universe".
