Word
Das Mädchen hat elf Fragen.
Meaning
The girl has eleven questions.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Das Mädchen hat elf Fragen.
haben
to have
die Frage
the question
das Mädchen
the girl
elf
eleven
Questions & Answers about Das Mädchen hat elf Fragen.
Why is it das Mädchen (neuter) and not die Mädchen (feminine)?
In German, grammatical gender doesn't always match biological gender. The word Mädchen ends in -chen, which is a special ending used to make words sound smaller or cuter. Every single German word ending in -chen is neuter, so it always uses das.
Does the number elf change its ending depending on the word it describes?
No. Cardinal numbers from 2 onwards, like elf (eleven), stay exactly the same no matter the gender of the noun that follows them. So it is always elf Fragen, just like it would be elf Hunde (dogs) or elf Mädchen (girls).
How do we know Fragen is plural?
The singular word for a question is die Frage. To make it plural, we add an -n to the end, making it Fragen. Since the number elf tells us there is more than one question, we must use this plural form.
Why do we use hat here?
hat is the he/she/it form of the verb haben (to have). Because das Mädchen is a singular noun, it takes this 3rd-person singular verb form.