Breakdown of Das Buch ist fürs Kind.
sein
to be
das Kind
the child
das Buch
the book
fürs
for the (für + das)
Questions & Answers about Das Buch ist fürs Kind.
Wait, I learned the word for 'for' is für. Why is there an 's' at the end of fürs?
fürs is a contraction (a mashed-together word) of the preposition für (for) and the neuter article das (the). So, fürs Kind means 'for the child'. It is very similar to saying 'it's' instead of 'it is' in English.
Since für always needs the accusative case, shouldn't the article das change here?
Good catch! für does force the following noun into the accusative case. However, Kind is a neuter noun. For neuter nouns, the article is das in both the basic subject form (nominative) and the accusative form. The article only visibly changes to show the accusative case if the noun is masculine, where der becomes den.
Do I have to use fürs, or can I just write für das Kind?
You can absolutely write für das Kind. Both are grammatically correct. fürs is just faster and very common in everyday spoken German. Using für das instead can sound a bit more formal, or it can be used if you want to emphasize the word 'the', almost like saying 'for THAT child'.
Can I attach other articles to für, like squishing für den into fürn?
In standard written German, only für and das get officially combined into fürs. You might hear native speakers slur für den into something sounding like 'fürn' in very casual street slang, but you should avoid writing it that way.
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