Word
Anna sucht den Fotografen.
Meaning
Anna is looking for the photographer.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Anna sucht den Fotografen.
suchen
to look for
Anna
Anna
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Fotograf
the photographer
Questions & Answers about Anna sucht den Fotografen.
Why does the word for photographer have an -en at the end? Is it plural?
It is actually singular here! Fotograf belongs to a special group of masculine nouns (often called weak nouns or n-declension). Whenever these nouns are not the subject of the sentence (like here, where the photographer is the direct object in the accusative case), they get an extra -n or -en at the end.
How can I tell if den Fotografen is singular or plural in this sentence?
Look at the article! The word den is the masculine singular article for the accusative case. If Anna were looking for multiple photographers, the plural article would be die, making it die Fotografen.
The English translation says 'is looking for'. Why is there no German word for 'for' in this sentence?
In English, we need the preposition 'for' after 'looking' to make sense. But the German verb suchen already means to look for or to seek. It takes a direct object right away, so you do not need to add an extra word like für.