Breakdown of Den lauten Nachbarn, den haben wir gestern Abend endlich gewarnt.
haben
to have
wir
we
der Nachbar
the neighbor (male)
laut
loud, loudly
gestern
yesterday
der Abend
the evening
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
warnen
to warn
endlich
at last
Questions & Answers about Den lauten Nachbarn, den haben wir gestern Abend endlich gewarnt.
Why is the sentence starting with the accusative Den lauten Nachbarn instead of the nominative?
Even though the phrase is pushed outside the main clause to the very front for emphasis (a structure called left dislocation), it is still the direct object of the verb warnen (to warn). Therefore, it must take the accusative case.
Why do we use den twice in a row in ...Nachbarn, den...?
The first den is the definite article ("the") belonging to Nachbarn. The second den is a demonstrative pronoun meaning "him" or "that one". In spoken German, when you pull a topic to the front of the sentence like this, you use a demonstrative pronoun right after the comma to "resume" that noun and plug it into the main clause.
If the verb has to be in position 2, why does haben come after both the noun phrase and the pronoun?
In left dislocation, the emphasized phrase (Den lauten Nachbarn) sits entirely outside the core sentence structure. The main clause actually starts with the demonstrative pronoun den in position 1. Because of this, the conjugated verb haben is perfectly placed in position 2 right behind it.
Quick refresher: Why do both laut and Nachbar end in -en or -n here?
Since this is a masculine accusative phrase following a definite article (den), the adjective takes the weak ending -en (lauten). Furthermore, Nachbar is a weak noun (an "n-declension" noun), meaning it adds an -n in every case except the nominative singular.
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