Questions & Answers about Die Post hat Briefmarken.
The current lesson is about es gibt (there is/are). Why do we use hat (has) here instead of es gibt?
Es gibt is used to say that something generally exists. But here, a specific place (the post office) is possessing or offering the items. In German, businesses or institutions can have (haben) things they sell, just like in English. You could use es gibt if you changed the sentence to express a location: In der Post gibt es Briefmarken (In the post office there are stamps).
Why is there no word for "some" before Briefmarken?
In German, when you talk about an unspecified amount of plural things, you simply leave out the article. This works exactly like the English sentence: "The post office has stamps." You do not need to add a word for "some."
Is Briefmarken in the accusative case here?
Yes! The verb haben (to have) always takes a direct object in the accusative case. Because Briefmarken is plural, its accusative form looks exactly the same as its basic nominative (subject) form.
What makes up the word Briefmarken?
It is a compound noun combining der Brief (the letter) and die Marken (the stamps or tokens). In German compound nouns, the final word always determines the gender and how to make the plural.
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