Questions & Answers about Das Kind lernt.
Why does lernt end with a -t?
The verb here is lernen (to learn). To match the subject Das Kind (The child), we use the third-person singular form. Just like with er, sie, or es (he, she, it), we drop the -en from the end of the dictionary form and add -t. That gives us lernt.
Why does this translate to 'is learning'? Where is the word for 'is'?
German doesn't have a special continuous '-ing' tense like English does! The single word lernt translates to both 'learns' and 'is learning'. You never need an extra word for 'is' when saying someone is doing an action in German.
Why is the article das used for 'the'?
Kind (child) is a neuter noun in German. Every German noun has a grammatical gender, and neuter nouns always use das for 'the'.
If I wanted to replace Das Kind with a pronoun, what would I use?
Because Kind is a neuter noun (using das), you would replace it with the neuter pronoun es (it). If you wanted to say 'It is learning,' you would say Es lernt.
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