Breakdown of Er hat am dritten August Geburtstag.
er
he
Geburtstag haben
to have a birthday (on a date)
der August
August
am
on the / at the
dritte
third
Questions & Answers about Er hat am dritten August Geburtstag.
Why does this sentence use dritten instead of dritte?
The word am requires the dative case. When we use an ordinal number like "third" after am, it acts like an adjective and adds an -n to the end, making it dritten.
What exactly does am mean here?
The word am is a contraction of the preposition an (on) and the dative article dem (the). You will always use am when stating days of the week or specific dates.
Is dritte an irregular word?
Yes! Normally, ordinal numbers from 1 to 19 are formed by adding -te to the number. But for 3, instead of "dreite", it changes to dritte. (Other exceptions are erste for 1st and siebte for 7th).
Why does the German sentence say "Er hat... Geburtstag" instead of "Sein Geburtstag ist..."?
While you can say "Sein Geburtstag ist..." (His birthday is...), the much more common and natural way to say this in German is to use the verb haben (to have). They literally say "He has birthday on the third of August".
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