Breakdown of Die Leute glauben dem Präsidenten nicht.
die Leute
the people
nicht
not
glauben
to believe
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Präsident
the president
Questions & Answers about Die Leute glauben dem Präsidenten nicht.
Why does the word for president have an -en at the end (Präsidenten)?
Präsident belongs to a special group of masculine nouns that follow the N-declension (weak nouns). Whenever these nouns are not the subject of the sentence (the nominative case), they add an -n or -en to the end. Since the president is the object being believed here, Präsident becomes Präsidenten.
Why is it dem Präsidenten instead of den Präsidenten?
The verb glauben (to believe) is a dative verb, meaning it always takes the dative case for the person you are believing. For masculine nouns, the dative word for 'the' is dem.
Is Leute considered a singular or plural word?
Leute (people) is always a plural noun in German. That is why the verb is conjugated as glauben (the plural form for 'they believe') instead of glaubt (singular).
Why is nicht at the very end of this sentence?
When you negate a whole sentence or the main verb's action in German, nicht usually gets pushed to the very end. Here, it negates the entire action of believing the president.
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