Breakdown of Kennst du die Musik meiner Generation?
du
you (informal singular)
kennen
to know (somebody/something)
die Musik
the music
mein
my
Questions & Answers about Kennst du die Musik meiner Generation?
Why does this sentence use kennst instead of weißt for "know"?
In German, there are two common verbs for "to know". Wissen is used for knowing facts or pieces of information. Kennen is used for being familiar with a person, place, or thing. Since you are asking if someone is familiar with "the music", you must use kennen.
Is die Musik in the Accusative case here?
Yes! It is the direct object receiving the action of the verb kennen. For feminine nouns, the article die looks exactly the same in both the Nominative (subject) and Accusative (object) cases, which is why it doesn't change its spelling here.
Why is it meiner Generation and not meine Generation?
This uses the Genitive case, which expresses possession or an "of" relationship. To say "of my generation", the feminine noun die Generation changes its possessive article from meine to meiner.
Wait, doesn't the -er ending on meiner usually mean a word is masculine?
It does when it's the subject of a sentence (like mein Vater). However, in the Genitive case (showing possession), feminine articles take an -er ending. German words ending in -tion are almost always feminine, so die Generation correctly becomes meiner Generation here.