"I like the apple."

Translation: Ich mag den Apfel.

[lumo_e]

Isn't the right verb for liking foods "schmecken"? Can you use mögen even in this case?

[Daifu]

i don't understant why is this sentence in the acusative case...i really don't know how to make the difference between the to cases in english...therefore i don't know when to use den or der in german...... can you help me please :)
ps: english is my second language :)

[Erikdebeus]

accusativ is the word you get when you ask the question: who/what subject + noun. So in the sentence mary eats an apple. what eats mary? an apple, thus apple is the accusativ. Another way of remembering is that its the object that is something done to by the subject. I hope this helps

[Hohenems]

what eats mary?

I think you mean "what does Mary eat" or "Mary eats what".

[JimJones10]

No I believe that is a direct translation as in what is eaten by mary. Was isst Mary

[Hohenems]

I can't explain cases. I'm not a linguist and never learned anything like it in school. Here is a good article though that might help. If you let us know what your first language is, maybe someone that speaks it can explain it to you. Hope this helps!

http://coerll.utexas.edu/gg/gr/cas_01.html

*Edit - This second link might help more because you might be able to find your first language in the menu and translate it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_grammar#Cases

[dvnny_c]

I thought it was der apfel ?

[chinmay_hegde]

Definite articles in German will change according to the gender and also with the case of the sentence.

[camila.rez1]

Why "der Apfel" is wrong?

[chinmay_hegde]

Definite article "der" changes to "den" in case of masculine gender when the sentence changes from nominative case to Akkusativ.

[smrabaig]

Can u tell me das chnge into what? And die into what?

[NovaPvP]

Das and Die stay the same always only Masculine ever changes from Der to Den