Breakdown of Meine Tochter trinkt Wasser.
trinken
to drink
das Wasser
the water
mein
my
die Tochter
the daughter
Questions & Answers about Meine Tochter trinkt Wasser.
Why is the word for "my" spelled meine here instead of just mein?
Because Tochter (daughter) is a feminine noun. When a feminine noun is the subject of the sentence (the Nominative case), possessive words like "my" add an -e to the end. If the subject were a masculine or neuter noun, you would just use mein.
The English translation says "is drinking". Why isn't there a German word for "is" in this sentence?
German doesn't have an "-ing" form (present continuous tense). The single verb trinkt covers both "drinks" and "is drinking". You don't need to add a word for "is"—the context will tell you which meaning makes sense!
Do I need to put an article like "the" or "some" before Wasser?
Not in this case! Just like in English, when you talk about an uncountable substance generally ("drinking water" rather than "drinking the water"), you don't need an article. You can just say trinkt Wasser.
Why is Wasser capitalized even though it is at the end of the sentence?
In German, all nouns—words for people, places, things, or concepts—are always capitalized, no matter where they appear in a sentence. Both Tochter (daughter) and Wasser (water) are nouns, so they get capital letters.
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