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- "Du hast einen Apfel."
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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 :)
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.
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!
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.
Whats difference between "Du" and "Ihr" ?!
This is explained in the tips and notes for the "Basic 2" unit: https://www.duolingo.com/skill/de/Basics-2/tips-and-notes
Please always read the tips and notes before starting a new unit.
You can find them on the website https://www.duolingo.com/ by clicking on the lightbulb icon after choosing a lesson unit:
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!
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
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.