"Where are the boy's pants?"
Translation:Wo ist die Hose des Jungen?
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Yes, normally masculine and neuter nouns add an "-(e)s" in the genitive singular. You're also right that "der Junge" is an exception. It's a so-called "weak noun" (n-declension). For more information on weak nouns, see: http://www.vistawide.com/german/grammar/german_nouns03.htm
Other weak nouns frequently used on Duolingo are "der Elefant" (the elephant) and "der Bär" (the bear).
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Why is "Wo sind die Hosen von den Jungen?" not acceptable? Is it because of the use of plural or because of the 'von den' at the end?
"Junge" (boy) belongs to a special group of nouns, the so-called weak masculine nouns or n-declension. These nouns add an -(e)n in all cases apart from the nominative singular. So you say "Junge" in the nominative singular (e.g. Der Junge ist intelligent = The boy is intelligent), but "Jungen" in all other cases in the singular and in the entire plural. You can still distinguish the singular and the plural by the articles, though:
Wo sind die Hosen des Jungen? = genitive singular. Where are the boy's pants?
Wo sind die Hosen der Jungen? = genitive plural. Where are the boys' pants?
For more information on weak nouns, see:
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I was just told that "Wo ist die Hose des Jungen?" was incorrect because Hose was singular. I reported it, of course, but what confuses me more is that here in the discussion it says that the translation is precisely that. Does anyone know what's going on here?