Questions & Answers about Er trägt Mias Geschenk.
Why is there no apostrophe in Mias?
In German, when we show possession with a person's name to say something like Mia's gift, we usually just add an -s to the end of the name without an apostrophe. So, Mia's becomes Mias. This is called the Saxon Genitive.
The dictionary says the verb is tragen. Why does it have an umlaut in er trägt?
The verb tragen (to carry or to wear) is a strong verb with a stem-vowel change. When used with er, sie, or es (he, she, it), the a changes to an ä. This is a very common pattern you will see with irregular German verbs in the present tense.
Is Mias Geschenk the direct object? Why doesn't the word change?
Yes, it is the direct object (which means it is in the accusative case) because it is the thing being carried. The word for gift is a neuter word (das Geschenk). In German, neuter words look exactly the same in the accusative case as they do in their basic dictionary form, so it doesn't get any special endings here.
Could I also say the gift from Mia using von?
Yes! You can also say das Geschenk von Mia (the gift of/from Mia). Both Mias Geschenk and das Geschenk von Mia are perfectly correct and very common in everyday German.
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