Breakdown of Die Katze von unserer Nachbarin ist sehr alt.
sein
to be
die Katze
the cat
sehr
very
alt
old
die Nachbarin
the neighbor (female)
von
from, of / by (agent in passive clauses)
Questions & Answers about Die Katze von unserer Nachbarin ist sehr alt.
Why is it "unserer" and not "unsere"?
The preposition von always requires the dative case. Because Nachbarin (female neighbor) is a feminine noun, the possessive word unsere (our) changes its ending to unserer in the dative.
Could I say "our neighbor's cat" using the genitive case instead?
Yes, you can! You could say Die Katze unserer Nachbarin ist sehr alt. Using the genitive case is slightly more formal, while using von plus the dative case (as in this sentence) is very common in everyday spoken German.
How can you tell that the neighbor in this sentence is a woman?
The word ends in -in, which is the standard ending for female people and professions in German. A male neighbor is der Nachbar, and a female neighbor is die Nachbarin.
Why doesn't the verb "ist" come right after "Katze"?
In a standard German statement, the conjugated verb must be in the second position. The entire phrase Die Katze von unserer Nachbarin acts as a single block taking up position one, so the verb ist takes position two right after it.
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