Breakdown of Die Frau braucht die Tomate und das Ei.
die Frau
the woman
und
and
brauchen
to need
die Tomate
the tomato
das Ei
the egg
Questions & Answers about Die Frau braucht die Tomate und das Ei.
This lesson is about plurals. Are die Tomate and das Ei singular or plural here?
They are singular! Because Tomate is a feminine noun, its singular word for 'the' is die. It is easy to confuse this with the plural article die since they look exactly the same. The plural versions of these words are die Tomaten (the tomatoes) and die Eier (the eggs).
If the woman needed multiple tomatoes and eggs, how would the sentence change?
Why don't the words die and das change here, since they are the objects being needed?
You are thinking of the accusative case, which we use for direct objects (the things receiving the action). In German, only masculine nouns (which use der) change their article to den in this situation. Feminine (die) and neuter (das) articles stay exactly the same as they are in the subject form.
Why does the verb end in a -t (braucht)?
The dictionary form of the verb is brauchen (to need). Because the subject of the sentence is Die Frau (the woman), which acts like 'she' (sie), we drop the -en and add the -t ending to match.
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