Questions & Answers about Der Hund ist hier.
Why is it der Hund instead of die Hund or das Hund?
In German, every noun has a grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter. The word Hund (dog) is masculine. When a masculine noun is the subject of a sentence (this is called the nominative case), we must use der for "the".
Why is the word Hund capitalized?
In German, all nouns are capitalized, no matter where they appear in the sentence. Since Hund is a noun (a person, place, or thing), it must start with a capital letter.
Der Hund is two words. Doesn't that make the verb ist the third word in the sentence?
In German statements, the verb must be in the second position or "slot". However, a position is based on the grammatical unit, not the word count. The article and the noun (Der Hund) stick together as a single subject unit, taking up position one. Therefore, the verb ist correctly sits in position two.
Which verb does ist come from?
ist means "is", and it is a form of the highly irregular verb sein (to be). We use ist here because the subject, der Hund, is a singular third-person noun (just like saying "he" or "it").
Learn Der Hund ist hier and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free