Breakdown of Das Hündchen schläft im Häuschen.
schlafen
to sleep
im
in the (used with months) / in the (contraction of in + dem)
das Häuschen
the little house
das Hündchen
the little dog
Questions & Answers about Das Hündchen schläft im Häuschen.
Why is it das Hündchen when the regular word for dog is der Hund?
In German, any noun that ends in the diminutive suffixes -chen or -lein is automatically neuter. So even though der Hund is masculine, making it a "little dog" changes it to das Hündchen.
Notice the spelling changes: why do Hund and Haus get umlauts here?
When forming a diminutive with -chen or -lein, the noun's main vowel usually takes an umlaut if it can. This means a, o, u, and au change to ä, ö, ü, and äu. That's why Hund becomes Hündchen and Haus becomes Häuschen.
Why does the sentence use im before Häuschen?
im is the common contraction of in dem. Because the little dog is sleeping in a fixed location (answering the question "where?"), the two-way preposition in requires the dative case. Since Häuschen is neuter (das Häuschen), its dative article is dem, which merges with in to make im.
Just to review, why is the verb spelled schläft and not schlaft?
schlafen (to sleep) is a strong verb with a stem-vowel change. In the present tense, the a changes to ä for the second and third person singular (du schläfst, er/sie/es schläft). Since das Hündchen is grammatically an "it" (es), we use the third person singular form schläft.
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