Questions & Answers about Meine Oma hat siebzehn Katzen.
Why is it siebzehn and not siebenzehn?
When building numbers from 13 to 19, you usually just add zehn (ten) to the base number, like vierzehn (fourteen). But 16 and 17 have a slight spelling change! For 17, you drop the -en from sieben, making it siebzehn. (For 16, you drop the -s from sechs, making it sechzehn).
Why does Meine have an -e at the end here?
Oma (grandma) is a feminine noun. In German, words like mein (my) or dein (your) need an extra -e at the end when they come before a feminine noun or a plural noun. So it becomes meine Oma.
How do we form the plural for Katzen (cats)?
The singular word for cat is Katze, which ends in an -e. To make it plural, German nouns that end in -e usually just add an -n at the end. So, die Katze (the cat) becomes die Katzen (the cats).
Why does the verb haben (to have) become hat here?