Breakdown of Er hat Geld, aber er kauft kein Haus.
er
he
das Haus
the house
kaufen
to buy
haben
to have
aber
but
kein
no, not any
das Geld
the money
Questions & Answers about Er hat Geld, aber er kauft kein Haus.
Why is the verb hat instead of habt?
hat is the form of the verb haben (to have) used with er (he), sie (she), and es (it). It is slightly irregular: instead of keeping the 'b' from the dictionary form to make 'habt', it drops it completely.
The English translation says 'he is not buying'. Why is there no German word for 'is' in er kauft?
German does not have an '-ing' tense like English does. The single present tense verb kauft translates to both 'buys' and 'is buying'. You never use a translation of 'is' or 'are' combined with another verb to describe an action happening right now.
Why does the sentence use kein instead of nicht to say he isn't buying a house?
Doesn't the verb have to be in the second position? Why is kauft the third word after the comma?
The verb is actually in the second position! The word aber (but) is a 'zero-position' word. It connects the two ideas but does not count towards the word order of the second phrase. So er is position one, and kauft sits safely in position two.
Why is it kein Haus without an ending like '-en'?
Because Haus is being bought, it is the direct object (the accusative case). However, since Haus is a neuter noun (das Haus), the word kein does not get an extra ending. If he were buying a masculine noun like an apple (der Apfel), it would change to keinen Apfel.
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