Ich sehe einen Elefant (en)???
Hello

I have a quick question that has been baffling me!!

When writing the sentence ‘I see an elephant’, I would write it as follows;

Ich sehe einen Elefant.

However, in my text book this sentence is written as follows;

Ich sehe einen ElefantEN

I cannot work out why there is an ‘EN’ on the end as the sentence is referring to only one elephant.

You would not for example say ‘Ich sehe einen HundEN’ so why does ‘elefant’ have an ‘EN’ added?

Hope some can help.

Laura

Question

Ich sehe einen Elefant (en)???
Hello

I have a quick question that has been baffling me!!

When writing the sentence ‘I see an elephant’, I would write it as follows;

Ich sehe einen Elefant.

However, in my text book this sentence is written as follows;

Ich sehe einen ElefantEN

 I cannot work out why there is an ‘EN’ on the end as the sentence is referring to only one elephant.

You would not for example say ‘Ich sehe einen HundEN’ so why does ‘elefant’ have an ‘EN’ added? 

Hope some can help.

Laura

Answer

Die Deklination bei Genitv, Dativ und Akkusativ. Maskuline Substantive mit -and, -ant, -ent, -ist und Wörter mit griechischen Wurzeln und einige bestimmte Wörter: 
http://www.peo.de/document-preview/20357/deutsche-grammatik.pdf

"der Hund" ist nicht auf dieser Liste.

Nominativ: Wer oder was ist das? - Das ist der (/ein) Elefant. 
der Student, der Artist, der Hund

Genitiv: Wessen Auto ist das? - Das ist das Auto des Elefanten.
des Studenten, des Artisten, des Hundes

Dativ: Wem gebe ich eine Banane? - Ich gebe dem Elefanten eine Banane.
dem Studenten, dem Artisten, dem Hund

Akkusativ: Wen oder was sehe ich? - Ich sehe den (/einen) Elefanten.
den Studenten, den Artisten, den (/einen) Hund

Answer

Good question. Many students are confused by this! The answer is:
There is a list of words, which require this "en". You can find the list in advanced German grammar books under the heading  "N-Deklination". 
It is an advanced topic. If you are a beginner you can leave it for later.

Answer

https://youtu.be/MGn56Qj9h2w
Watch this video, where this rules is explained

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