Word
Der Prinz warf den Ring und die Königin fing ihn.
Meaning
The prince threw the ring and the queen caught it.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der Prinz warf den Ring und die Königin fing ihn.
und
and
ihn
him
werfen
to throw
der Ring
the ring
Questions & Answers about Der Prinz warf den Ring und die Königin fing ihn.
How do we get the past tense warf?
warf is the simple past (Präteritum) of the irregular verb werfen (to throw). Like many strong verbs, it changes its stem vowel in the past tense, going from 'e' to 'a'. Because it is in the third-person singular, it takes no extra ending.
What is the infinitive form of fing?
fing comes from the irregular verb fangen (to catch). Here, the stem vowel changes from 'a' to 'i' for the simple past tense. Just like warf, the third-person singular form has no additional ending after the changed stem.
Why does the sentence use ihn instead of es for 'it'?
In English, we use 'it' for inanimate objects, but German pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace. The queen caught the ring (der Ring), which is masculine. Because it is the direct object being caught, it takes the masculine accusative pronoun ihn.
Why doesn't the verb fing go to the end of the sentence after und?
The word und is a coordinating conjunction, which means it acts as a bridge and takes 'position zero' in the clause. The second half of the sentence restarts as a brand new main clause: the subject die Königin is in position 1, and the verb fing takes the normal position 2.