Word
Wir haben in einer Jugendherberge geschlafen.
Meaning
We slept in a youth hostel.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Wir haben in einer Jugendherberge geschlafen.
Why is it einer and not eine in this sentence?
The word in is a two-way preposition. Because it describes a static location answering the question 'where?' (wo?), it requires the dative case. Jugendherberge is a feminine noun, so the dative indefinite article is einer.
Why does geschlafen use haben instead of sein for the past tense?
Even though sleeping is a state, the verb schlafen doesn't describe a change of state or movement from one place to another, so it takes haben. However, the verb for falling asleep (einschlafen) does describe a change of state, so it uses sein.
How do you determine the gender of a long word like Jugendherberge?
It is a compound noun made from die Jugend (youth) and die Herberge (hostel). In German, the very last noun in a compound word always dictates the gender of the whole word, which is why it is feminine.
Would a German speaker use schliefen instead of haben geschlafen here?
In everyday conversation, Germans almost exclusively use the spoken past tense (Perfekt) like haben geschlafen. The simple past (wir schliefen) sounds quite formal and is mostly found in written texts like books or news articles.