Learn German: Wir brauchen unseren Balkon nicht.

The word unser means "our". In this sentence, the balcony is the direct object (the thing being needed). Because Balkon is a masculine noun (der Balkon) and is in the accusative case, we must add the -en ending to unser, making it unseren.

How does the word unseren help us figure out the gender of Balkon?

Since the sentence uses unseren, we know the noun following it must be masculine. Feminine, neuter, or plural nouns take different endings for direct objects, like unsere for feminine and plural, or just unser for neuter. If you were not sure if it was der, die, or das Balkon, the -en ending gives it away as masculine!

Why is nicht at the very end of the sentence?

When you negate an entire action in German, like the act of needing a balcony, the word nicht usually gets pushed to the very end of the sentence. English puts "not" right before the verb ("do not need"), but German structures it more like "we need our balcony not".

Where is the word for "do" in the German sentence?