"Sie hat einen Elefanten."

Translation: She has an elephant.

[bhomik77]

Is this correct? Einen Elefanten? einen is singular and Elefanten is plural I think.....Can somebody clear the doubt

[jahudam]

It is correct--Duolingo threw us kind of a mean curve ball on this one. Elefant is irregular in that it changes its ending depending on the case. There are very few nouns that work this way and unfortunately you just have to memorize them... For more info check out this thread: http://duolingo.com/#/comment/313?from_skill=0cc096abe097f7dab3bb9434d94ea632

[RaymondLee10]

Are nouns that do this called "weak nouns", or am I thinking of something different?

[Max.Em]

Seems to be true: http://mein-deutschbuch.de/n-deklination.html
I never thought so much about it...

[JamesRobin26066]

that thread now just opens duolingo

[christian]

It's correct (accusative singular).

http://goo.gl/10dd1

[bhomik77]

Could you please tell me if the sentence --- It is a dog (Es ist ein Hund) is nominativ or akkusativ ............What I think is if there is a object, then it is a akkusativ, so Es ist ein Hund is correct instead of Es ist einen Hund. It is nominativ according to me.

Now why do u say, He has a elephant is akkusativ?

[jahudam]

Very few verbs take Nominativ but sein is one of them so "Es ist ein Hund." is Nominativ.

Haben takes Akkusativ so "Sie hat einen Elefanten" is Akkusativ.

[Duomail]

Within "Tips": It is a dog is a form of predicative nominative.

http://duolingo.com/#/skill/de/Nominative-Case

[minollox]

... einen Elefanten, very interesting!

[Janxos]

How do you know if it is "She" or "They"?

[christian]

The verb has a different conjugation.

• sie hat = she has

• sie haben = they have

• Sie haben = you (formal) have

At the start of a sentence and in speech, you can't tell the difference between the last two without looking at the context.

http://goo.gl/Wwds0

[AndrsSzala5]

I think there could be a whole topic for weak nouns. They just keep poping up and people keep surprising on them. :D

[Nathemmel]

This is something called n-deklination (used for some male nouns in all cases, except for Nominativ).