Breakdown of Die Maschine unseres Ingenieurs funktioniert perfekt.
funktionieren
to work (function)
unser
our
perfekt
perfect / perfectly
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Ingenieur
the engineer
die Maschine
the machine (mechanical)
Questions & Answers about Die Maschine unseres Ingenieurs funktioniert perfekt.
Why does the sentence use unseres Ingenieurs instead of unser Ingenieur?
This is the genitive case, which is used to show possession (similar to adding "'s" in English). To express "our engineer's machine," German changes the endings of the possessive article (unser) and the noun (Ingenieur) to show that the engineer owns the machine.
Why is there an -es at the end of unseres?
The base word for "our" is unser. Because Ingenieur is a masculine noun and it is in the genitive case here, the possessive article must take the masculine genitive ending -es, making it unseres.
Why is an -s added to the end of Ingenieurs?
In the genitive case, masculine and neuter nouns almost always get an extra -s or -es added to the end of the noun itself. Since Ingenieur is masculine, it becomes Ingenieurs. Remember that feminine and plural nouns do not get this extra letter at the end!
Is there another way to say "our engineer's" if I forget the genitive rules?
Yes! In everyday spoken German, people often avoid the genitive case by using von (of) followed by the dative case. You will frequently hear Die Maschine von unserem Ingenieur funktioniert perfekt. Both are correct, but the genitive version in this sentence is more common in writing or formal speech.
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