Word
Wir haben das Bett für ihn gebaut.
Meaning
We built the bed for him.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Wir haben das Bett für ihn gebaut.
How do we form the past tense word gebaut?
gebaut is the past participle of the regular verb bauen (to build). To make this form, you take the verb stem bau-, add ge- to the front, and add -t to the end. You then pair it with a helping verb like haben to talk about the past.
Why is gebaut at the very end of the sentence?
When using the Perfekt tense, the helping verb (here, haben) goes in the second position of the sentence. However, the actual action word, the past participle (gebaut), must go at the very end. This creates a sentence bracket around the other information.
Why do we use ihn for 'him' after für?
The preposition für always requires the accusative (direct object) case. The pronoun er (he) changes to ihn (him) in the accusative case.
The bed is the direct object being built, so why is it das Bett and not den Bett?
Bett is a neuter noun. In the accusative case, only masculine nouns change their 'the' word to den. Neuter nouns stay as das, and feminine nouns stay as die.