Transcript Slide 1

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© Heidi Behrens
The world of
sentences
A sentence is like the
theatre. Every member of a
sentence plays a different
role. So who are the actors
and what roles do they play?
Let me introduce the actors:
The Subject - Nominativ
The Verb
The Object - Accusativ
Let’s take a sentence
like:
Ich
habe
einen Hund
I
have
a dog
Ich
=
Subject
(Nominativ)
The Subject
(Nominativ) is
like ‘actionman’.
It is always
doing the action
habe
=
Verb
The Verb is the
action itself,e.g.
‘playing’ or in our
case ‘having’.
einen Hund
Subject
Object
=
Object
(Accusativ)
The OBJECT is the
victim of the
subject’s action. The
SUBJECT is always
doing something to
the OBJECT!!!!
Now look what
happens to the
word ‘a’ in the
following two
sentences.
Subj.
Verb
Subj.
Rover
ist
ein Hund
Subj.
Verb
Obj.
Ich
habe
einen
Hund
Have you noticed…..?
 ‘ein
Hund’ in sentence 1 changes to
 ‘einen

Hund’ in sentence 2.
THIS IS BECAUSE ‘einen
Hund‘ IS THE
OBJECT (Accusativ) OF THE SENTENCE!!!!
The good news……..
This change only
happens to masculine
(blue) nouns
Subj.
Verb
Obj.
Ich
habe
einen Hund
eine Katze
ein Kaninchen
-- Haustiere
Now try and find out which role
the English words play:
Subj.
Verb
Obj.
Subj.
my mother
Verb
has
Obj.
a hamster
Subj.
Verb
Obj.
Subj.
Michael
Verb
Obj.
meets
his friend
Now try the same with a
German sentence:
Subj.
Verb
Obj.
Subj.
Mein Bruder
Verb
hat
Obj.
einen Fisch
Subj.
Verb
Obj.
Subj.
Verb
Obj.
Du
hast
Haustiere
Remember…..
After the verb ‘haben’ you
always need an OBJECT. If
the OBJECT is masculine ‘ein’
becomes ‘einen’!
Subj.
Verb
Obj.
Ich
habe
einen
einen
einen
einen
Hund
Hamster
Wellensittich
Fisch
eine Maus
eine Katze
eine Schildkröte
ein Kaninchen
ein Pferd
ein Meerschweinchen
-- Haustiere