Breakdown of In was für einem Safe hast du das Geld gelassen?
du
you (informal singular)
in
in
haben
to have
das Geld
the money
lassen
to let, to leave (something)
was für ein
what kind of
der Safe
the safe
Questions & Answers about In was für einem Safe hast du das Geld gelassen?
Why is the ending einem instead of just ein in was für einem?
The phrase was für ein- changes its ending based on the case of the noun. The preposition in is describing a static location here, which requires the dative case. Since Safe is a masculine noun (der Safe), the ending for ein- becomes einem. The words was für stay exactly the same.
Why does in take the dative case here? I thought it could also take the accusative.
You are right, in is a two-way preposition. It takes the accusative when describing movement towards a destination, but it takes the dative when describing a fixed location. Since the money is just sitting inside the safe, it answers the English question "where?" rather than "where to?", so we use the dative.
Why does gelassen look so much like the infinitive verb lassen?
The verb lassen (to leave or to let) is a strong, irregular verb. Unlike regular verbs that end in -t in the past participle, lassen forms its past participle by simply adding ge- to the front of the infinitive, resulting in gelassen.
Why is the verb hast so far into the sentence? Shouldn't verbs come first in a question?
In a question with a question word or phrase, that entire phrase goes in the first position, and the verb comes second. Here, the whole chunk In was für einem Safe acts as one single grammatical block. It takes up position one, so the helping verb hast correctly sits in position two.
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