Breakdown of Der Chef hat einen Freiwilligen ausgewählt.
ein
a, an (eine)
haben
to have
der Chef
the boss (male)
freiwillig
voluntary
auswählen
to select
Questions & Answers about Der Chef hat einen Freiwilligen ausgewählt.
Why does the noun Freiwilligen end in -en instead of looking like a normal noun?
Freiwilligen is a nominalized adjective—an adjective turned into a noun to describe a person. Because of this, it still follows the normal rules for adjective endings. Here, it is masculine, in the accusative case (the direct object receiving the action), and comes after the indefinite article einen, so it takes the -en ending.
How would this sentence change if the volunteer were female?
You would say: Der Chef hat eine Freiwillige ausgewählt. For a female volunteer, you use the feminine article eine. Because it is still a nominalized adjective, it needs the correct adjective ending. The ending for a feminine noun in the accusative case after eine is -e.
If the boss selected several volunteers, how would the word change?
If you want to say "volunteers" in the plural without an article (meaning "some volunteers"), you use the strong adjective ending for the plural accusative, which is -e. The sentence becomes: Der Chef hat Freiwillige ausgewählt. If you used the definite article ("the volunteers"), the ending is -en: Der Chef hat die Freiwilligen ausgewählt.
I noticed ausgewählt has -ge- in the middle. Why is that?
The infinitive verb is auswählen (to choose or select), which is a separable verb (aus + wählen). When forming the past participle for a separable verb in the perfect tense, the -ge- is sandwiched directly between the separable prefix and the main part of the verb, resulting in ausgewählt.
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