"I have an apple."
Translation:Ich habe einen Apfel.
72 Comments
I guess the reason is "ein Apfel" (Masculine) in Accusative changes on "einen Apfel". For Feminine, Neuter and Plural there is no change in Accusative. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension#Indefinite_articles
Eine is a definite article in nominative case for masculine words and Einen is in accusative case for the same.
These are cases. In English, we have three distinct cases, and they only apply to pronouns.
- Subjective (nominative) is for the subject: "He ran"
- Objective (accusative) is for the object: "I slapped him"
- Possessive (genitive) shows possession: "That's his cat."
German's a bit different. Firstly, articles (a/the) can also change case. Secondly, there's a fourth case, dative, that is part of our objective case. Dative is used for indirect objects. For instance, "He is giving him a dollar."
Getting the case right is extremely important, because German word order can be ambiguous. It's not like English, where word order often indicates case.
- Der Hund beißt den Mann. The dog bites the man.
- Den Mann beißt der Hund. The dog bites the man.
Those both mean the same thing? In english I want to literally translate the second example to "the man bites the dog. "
This stuff is giving me a lot of trouble.
382
Oh! So, for the last example...because it is 'Den Mann', and 'Der Hund', the order of the two around the verb can be switched?
Accusative is for the direct object. ==> The policeman gave him a ticket.
Dative is for the indirect object. ==> The policeman gave him a ticket.
The indirect object is usually the thing that receives the direct object. ==> I gave the football to the quarterback.
Ok, so in this sentance we use both accusative and dativ forms. At beginning I thought you show us two different examples...
So I see it this way: accusative is a question of what?, and dativ is a question of e.g. to whom?.
Then we have: what? - a ticket to whom? - (to) him
Ok now i know what is akusativ and what is dative, so when should i use einen or den?
Nominativ is a sentence that have one subject, Akkusativ is a sentence that have two subjects. E.g. Ich (1st subject) habe .... Apfel (2nd subject) it means it's akk that's why we use EINEN
What's the difference between "ein" and "einen" both are masculine but when do we use each one?
I started making a list of the Conjunctives to help me along, something I noticed is that each word ended in the same letter for LESEN, HABEN, TRINKEN, ESSEN. so for instance:
Wir and Sie ends in -EN
Du ends in -ST
er/sie/es/ihr all end in -T
ich end with an -E
I highly doubt all of the action words will follow this pattern for accusative but none the less this observation at the very least makes it easier to remember these words and I am sure others together if you remember the basic spelling of the word
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
LESEN (to read)
ich (I) LESE
du (you, singular) LIEST
er/sie/es (he/she/it) LIEST
wir (we) LESEN
ihr (you, plural) LEST
sie (they) LESEN
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
HABEN (to have)
ich (I) HABE
du (you, singular) HAST
er/sie/es (he/she/it) HAT
wir (we) HABEN
ihr (you, plural) HABT
sie (they) HABEN
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
TRINKEN (to drink)
ich (I) TRINKE
du (you, singular) TRINKST
er/sie/es (he/she/it) TRINKT
wir (we)TRINKEN
ihr (you, plural) TRINKT
sie (they) TRINKEN
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Essen (to eat)
ich (I) ESSE
di (you, singular) ISST
er/sie/es (he/she/it) ISST
wir (we) ESSEN
ihr (you, plural) ESST
sie (they) ESSEN
I hope you don't mind but, even with the fact that there are going to be exceptions and such... this should be very useful.
(I'm saving it onto a word document for future reference.)
"einen" in the accusative is Masculine so "einen Apfel" is perfectly spelled.
For more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension#Indefinite_articles
I can't figure out when hast, habe, haben, or habt are used. I realize they all mean have, I just can't grasp when one is used over the other.
I answered this with 'habe' 'haben' and 'habt' and was marked incorrect for all three
Why do I have to include the "Ich"? Wouldn't the conjugated "habe" already provide enough context for listeners/readers to know that I am talking about myself?
So with the verb to be (bin), in this sentence Apfel would not have been accusative. In English, Have is a similar linking verb, but in German Apfel is accusative - is that right?
To be doesn't take the accusative, think of them as equals. The cat is an animal - they're equals, and there is no accusative case involved.
With other verbs, when the object is receiving the verb it becomes the accusative case when it's the direct object... so yes, the Apfel is receiving the verb, which is not to be, and it's masculine, so it changes from ein to einen.
I don`t perceive word ein Apfel as it was Accusative (I feel it here as Nominative) in this sentence with the verb "to have". There is the problem I guess. "Ich esse einen Apfel" I would catch better...
A noun that TAKES the verb is accusative. In this sentence Apfel takes haben, and is therefore it is einen Apfel. If you were to say "The apple has me." THEN you would use ein Apfel.
I'm kinda confused as to when to use the different haves like habt and habe can someone explain please?
You are right for personal pronouns. But it can be used for a possessive pronoun as well. Than it means "her" as in
Ihr Mann trinkt --> Her husband drinks.
But that will be introduced in later lessons I guess.
WTF is does "accusative" and "nominative" mean.... not all of us are grammar-philes. Nothing is the thread is useful.... Please explain with English corollaries.
Did you read the tips section of "Basics 2" here: http://www.duolingo.com/skill/de/Basics-2 ? This site does a pretty good job in explaining it further: http://www.deutschseite.de/grammatik/faelle/faelle.html
if it is ''I have an apple'' it must be ''Ich habe den Apfel'',not einen Apfel,who is stupid here?!
If you say "I have an apple" it's indefinite; you are not referring to a specific apple. If, on the other hand, you're talking about a specific apple - like, say, someone was looking one that they lost and you found it - you would say "I have the apple." That's definite - you're talking about a very specific thing.
That's why you say "einen" and not "den" here, because it's indefinite.
And yeah, for apples, this is kinda silly, but think about something where it does matter like, say... keys.
Yes,I got it...But explain this:I translated :I have an apple- Ich habe den Apfel,it was wrong ,because they wanted me to write einen...
