Breakdown of 1939 hat die Fluggesellschaft den ersten Hubschrauber gekauft.
kaufen
to buy
haben
to have
erste
first (adjective)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
die Fluggesellschaft
the airline
der Hubschrauber
the helicopter
Questions & Answers about 1939 hat die Fluggesellschaft den ersten Hubschrauber gekauft.
Why is there no word for 'in' before 1939?
In German, when you state a specific year, you either use the year completely by itself (like here: 1939 hat...) or you use the phrase im Jahr before it (Im Jahr 1939 hat...). You cannot say in 1939, which is a direct translation from English and a very common mistake!
Why does hat come before the subject die Fluggesellschaft?
German uses V2 (verb-second) word order. Because the year 1939 takes up the first position in the sentence, the conjugated verb hat must come right after it in the second position. The subject die Fluggesellschaft is then pushed to the third position.
Why is it den ersten and not just der erste?
The helicopter is the direct object of the sentence (the thing being bought), so it takes the accusative case. Since Hubschrauber is a masculine noun, the definite article changes from der to den, and the adjective erste gets the accusative masculine ending -en.
How is the word Fluggesellschaft built?
It is a compound noun made up of der Flug (the flight) and die Gesellschaft (the company or society). As with all German compound nouns, it takes its gender from the last word, making it die Fluggesellschaft (the airline).
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