Breakdown of Darfst du den Film sehen?
du
you (informal singular)
sehen
to see
der Film
the movie / the film
dürfen
to be allowed to, may
Questions & Answers about Darfst du den Film sehen?
Why is it darfst and not something with an ü like the dictionary form dürfen?
Modal verbs like dürfen often change their vowel in the singular forms (I, you, he/she/it). For dürfen, the ü changes to an a, making the 'du' form darfst.
Why is the verb sehen at the very end of the sentence?
When you use a modal verb like dürfen, it takes the main verb slot (which is position 1 for a yes/no question). The action verb (sehen) gets pushed to the very end of the sentence in its original dictionary form.
Why does the sentence use den Film instead of der Film?
Film is a masculine noun. Because 'you' (du) are the subject doing the watching, the movie is the direct object receiving the action. This puts it in the accusative case, so der changes to den.
Could I use kannst (can) instead of darfst here?
In English, we often ask 'Can you watch the movie?' to mean 'Are you allowed to?'. But in German, können (can) usually refers to having the physical ability or time. To specifically ask about permission (being allowed to), you should use dürfen.
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