Breakdown of Was für ein Pulver haben wir hier?
hier
here
haben
to have
wir
we
was für ein
what kind of
das Pulver
the powder
Questions & Answers about Was für ein Pulver haben wir hier?
How would I change this sentence to use the subjective dürfte from our current lesson?
To express a strong assumption, like asking what kind of powder we probably have, you can replace haben with the Konjunktiv II modal verb dürften and move haben to the end of the sentence as an infinitive. The sentence becomes: Was für ein Pulver dürften wir hier haben?
Why is it ein and not einen after Was für?
The phrase was für ein changes its ending based on the noun it describes and its grammatical role in the sentence. Here, the noun is das Pulver (neuter). Because the verb haben requires a direct object in the accusative case, we need the neuter accusative form of ein, which remains ein. If the noun were masculine, like der Sand, it would be Was für einen Sand haben wir hier?
Is Was für ein always kept together in this specific sentence structure?
In written German, yes, the question block Was für ein Pulver stays together in the first position. However, in casual spoken German, it is very common to split it! You will often hear native speakers say Was haben wir hier für ein Pulver?, moving the noun phrase after the verb and subject.
Why doesn't this literally mean "What for a powder do we have here?"
While was für ein literally looks like "what for a", it is simply the standard German fixed expression for "what kind of" or "what type of". It does not ask about the purpose of the powder. If you wanted to ask what the powder is used for, you would need a different question word like wofür, such as Wofür haben wir dieses Pulver?
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