Breakdown of Das Mädchen isst viel Obst, aber keinen Salat.
aber
but
kein
no, not any
viel
much / a lot
das Mädchen
the girl
essen
to eat
das Obst
the fruit
der Salat
the salad
Questions & Answers about Das Mädchen isst viel Obst, aber keinen Salat.
Why do we use viel instead of sehr here?
We use viel (a lot, much) when talking about quantities of nouns, like Obst (fruit). You would use sehr (very) to make an adjective stronger, like sehr gut (very good).
A girl is female, so why is it Das Mädchen instead of Die Mädchen?
In German, grammatical gender does not always match biological gender. Any word ending in the suffix -chen (which is used to make things sound small or cute) is automatically neuter, so it takes das.
Why is the verb isst and not esst?
The verb essen (to eat) is irregular. For the third person singular (he, she, or it), the first vowel changes from e to i, making it isst. Since das Mädchen is grammatically neuter (it), we use isst.
Why is it keinen Salat with an -en at the end?
Salat is a masculine noun (der Salat). In this sentence, the salad is the direct object (the thing not being eaten), which puts it in the accusative case. Masculine words in the accusative case get an -en ending, so kein becomes keinen.
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