Breakdown of Verwechselst du das Shampoo? Es ist meins.
sein
to be
du
you (informal singular)
es
it
meiner
mine [pronoun, also: meins, meine]
verwechseln
to mix up / to confuse
das Shampoo
the shampoo
Questions & Answers about Verwechselst du das Shampoo? Es ist meins.
Why does the sentence use meins instead of just mein?
Because meins is acting as a standalone pronoun meaning "mine" rather than a describing word attached to a noun. If you included the noun, you would say Es ist mein Shampoo (It is my shampoo). But when you drop the word Shampoo, the possessive word adds an -s to show it is a neuter word standing completely alone.
What would the word for "mine" be if the sentence was about a masculine noun, like der Kamm (the comb)?
It would change to match the masculine gender. You would say Es ist meiner. For a feminine noun like die Bürste (the brush), it would be Es ist meine. Because das Shampoo is neuter, it takes the neuter ending to become meins.
Is the verb verwechseln (to confuse) separable?
No, it is inseparable. Verbs starting with the prefix ver- never separate in German. That is why the whole verb stays together as verwechselst instead of sending ver to the end of the sentence.
Why start the second sentence with Es instead of Das?
Es is the personal pronoun "it" and directly takes the place of the neuter noun das Shampoo. You could also say Das ist meins to mean "That is mine", but Es is the perfect fit when referring back to a specific neuter object like the shampoo.
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