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- Topic: German >
- "Der Mann hat einen Fisch."
38 Comments
It is der fisch, but in this sentence the fish is the object (accusative case) so it becomes den fisch, but because we're talking about a fish and not the fish it becomes einen fisch (from ein fisch) hope this helps!
So if i say "ein fisch" in this sentence, does it imply "a fish has the man"?
No
A man has a fish: Ein Mann hat einen Fisch
A fish has a man: Ein Fisch hat einen Mann
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I think she is asking why it's "einen" instead of "ein". I am wondering about this. I took "einen" to mean "an", as it's used in English when the noun begins with a vowel ("an apple").
i think its einen because 1. its talking about 'A' fish 2. the phrase 'a fish' occurs at the end of the sentence so its becomes the Accusative so that means its the einen form...but If you start the sentence with say A fish is healthy/good to eat then it would be ein fisch because the -en (einen) part only happens when its the 2nd part of the sentence not the start...Please is this correct, I am making a learned guess here??
Words do not become accusative just because they are at the end of the sentence. If you read the theory part in Basics 2, you will find this example: "Den Apfel hat das Mädchen." Here, "den Apfel" is clearly the accusative. The accusative simply means that somebody/something else is doing something to this object. Even though in this example the man's action on the fish is more passive, because he "is owning" the fish.
Because when nouns receives an action, we use the accusative case Der > Den Ein > Einen
This change only happens with masculine nouns like Apfel, Junge etc.
It is ein or einen??? in a past example I had wrong when I put einen and now I put ein and is wrong too???
In this example, einen is correct.
der Fisch is a masculine noun, so the indefinite article would be ein if it was the subject of the sentence and therefore in the nominative case.
However, in this example, der Mann is the subject of the sentence. He has a fish which is the direct object of the sentence, so it is in the accusative case. In the accusative case the indefinite article takes an -en ending for masculine nouns, so it becomes einen Fisch:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_articles#Indefinite_article
i think, fish is uncountable in english... so i reply “the man has fish”. （english is also foreign language for me.）
Fish is a countable noun - one fish, two fish, etc. It can be an uncountable noun when referring to fish as a food, but this is also true of Fisch in German:
In this example, the indefinite article is used in German and should be translated to English to keep the same meaning:
Der Mann hat einen Fisch = The man has a fish (meaning the man has a single fish)
Leaving out the article would be OK, if it doesn't exist in the original:
Der Mann hat Fisch = The man has fish (meaning the man has some fish)
I don't really understand the whole accusative and nominative concept. Is it like subjects and objects? Can someone please explain?
Yep. Nominative means a word is the subject of the sentence. In this case, der Mann is nominative. Accusitive is for the direct object, einen Fisch.
Why can't I say "the man is having a fish"? (i'm not native english speaker). is it a mistake in my translation from German or it could also work?
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I think the English sentence "the man is having a fish" would mean that he is eating the fish right now. "The man has a fish" and "der Mann hat einen Fisch" simply means that he has one. Either he fished it and is holding it, or maybe it's swimming around in his aquarium at home. :)
Then I figure the translation for "the man is having a fish" would be "Der Mann isst einen Fisch", which would basically mean that "the man is having a fish" is same as "the man is eating a fish".
"is having" implies consumption, while this sentance is only telling the he possesses a fish.
I think the verb "haben" dosen't mean consumption in german, only possession.
Regarding the einen vs ein. What if i said " Der Mann hat einen Wein"? Is that ok ?
When do we know when to use einen, eine, ein, before inanimate things like food etc. Mostly food in this, but please also explain in general if you can
