Questions & Answers about Er hat mich einen Freund genannt.
How do you form the past participle genannt?
genannt comes from the verb nennen (to name/call). It is a "mixed" verb, which means it mixes the rules of regular and irregular verbs. Like regular verbs, it starts with ge- and ends in -t. But like irregular verbs, its stem vowel changes (from e to a), giving us genannt.
Why are both mich and einen Freund in the accusative case?
Usually, a sentence has only one accusative object. But nennen is a special verb that takes two accusative objects: the person being called (mich) and the title they are given (einen Freund). Because Freund is a masculine noun, the article changes to einen in the accusative case.
Why is the word genannt at the very end of the sentence?
This sentence is in the Perfekt (past) tense. In German, the helping verb (here, hat) takes the second position in the sentence, while the past participle (genannt) must wait until the very end.
Could I use the verb gerufen (from rufen) instead of genannt to say "called"?
No, because they mean different things in German. You use nennen (past participle: genannt) to mean "to call" in the sense of a name or title. If you want to say you called someone on the phone, you would use anrufen, and to call out or shout to someone, you use rufen.