Breakdown of Wir haben die Maschine eines Ingenieurs repariert.
ein
a, an (eine)
haben
to have
wir
we
reparieren
to repair
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Ingenieur
the engineer
die Maschine
the machine (mechanical)
Questions & Answers about Wir haben die Maschine eines Ingenieurs repariert.
Why is it eines Ingenieurs instead of ein Ingenieur?
eines Ingenieurs is in the genitive case, which shows possession (meaning 'of an engineer' or 'an engineer's'). Because Ingenieur is a masculine noun, the indefinite article ein takes the genitive ending -es, becoming eines.
Why is there an -s at the end of Ingenieurs?
In the genitive case, masculine and neuter nouns usually add an -s or -es to the end of the word itself. Since Ingenieur is a masculine noun, it becomes Ingenieurs.
In English we say 'an engineer's machine'. Why does eines Ingenieurs come after die Maschine in German?
Why is repariert at the very end of the sentence?
This sentence uses the present perfect tense to talk about the past. In this tense, the helping verb (haben) takes the second position in the sentence, and the past participle (repariert) gets pushed all the way to the end.
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