Breakdown of Welcher Vogel frisst das Futter?
welcher
which (welcher, welche, welches, welchen, welchem...)
das Futter
the feed / the food (for animals)
der Vogel
the bird
fressen
to eat (for animals)
Questions & Answers about Welcher Vogel frisst das Futter?
Why does the sentence use Welcher instead of Welche or Welchen?
The word welch- (which) changes its ending to match the gender and case of the noun it describes. Here, it goes with Vogel (bird), which is a masculine noun (der Vogel). Since the bird is the subject of the sentence (the one doing the eating), it is in the nominative case. The masculine nominative ending is -er, giving us Welcher.
Why use frisst instead of isst for 'is eating'?
In German, there are different verbs for 'to eat' depending on who is eating. When humans eat, we use essen. When animals eat, we use fressen. Since a bird is an animal, we use a form of fressen.
How does the verb fressen become frisst?
fressen is an irregular verb. Just like essen (which becomes isst), it has a stem vowel change in the 'he/she/it' forms. The letter e changes to an i, so for der Vogel (a singular subject acting as 'he' or 'it'), the verb becomes frisst.
What case is das Futter in this sentence?