Breakdown of Wir feiern den fünfzigsten Geburtstag von meinem Opa.
wir
we
mein
my
der Geburtstag
the birthday
feiern
to celebrate
der Opa
the grandpa
von
from, of / by (agent in passive clauses)
fünfzigste
fiftieth
Questions & Answers about Wir feiern den fünfzigsten Geburtstag von meinem Opa.
Why does it say fünfzigsten with an -n at the end instead of just fünfzigste?
Ordinal numbers from 20 onwards are formed by adding -ste to the number, like fünfzigste. However, ordinal numbers act exactly like adjectives and need adjective endings. Here, the birthday is the direct object (accusative case) and is masculine, so the adjective ending -n is added to make den fünfzigsten.
Why do we use den before Geburtstag?
Geburtstag (birthday) is a masculine noun (der Geburtstag). Since it is the direct object of the verb feiern (to celebrate), it takes the accusative case. In the accusative case, the masculine der changes to den.
How does von meinem Opa translate to my grandpa's?
To show possession, everyday German often uses the preposition von (of) instead of using an apostrophe 's'. The sentence literally translates to: We are celebrating the 50th birthday of my grandpa.
Why does mein have an -em ending in von meinem Opa?
The preposition von always requires the following phrase to be in the dative case. Since Opa is masculine, the possessive word mein takes the dative masculine ending -em, becoming meinem.
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