Word
Der Rückgabeautomat bucht das Buch zurück.
Meaning
The returns machine checks the book back in.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der Rückgabeautomat bucht das Buch zurück.
das Buch
the book
der Rückgabeautomat
the returns machine
zurückbuchen
to check in (a returned library item)
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Questions & Answers about Der Rückgabeautomat bucht das Buch zurück.
Why is it der Rückgabeautomat but das Buch?
Those are the grammatical genders of the nouns:
- der Rückgabeautomat = masculine
- das Buch = neuter
In this sentence, der Rückgabeautomat is the subject, so it stays in the nominative case: der.
das Buch is the direct object, and because Buch is neuter, the article is das in both nominative and accusative. So here das Buch is accusative, but it looks the same as nominative.
What case is each noun in this sentence?
- Der Rückgabeautomat is in the nominative case because it is the subject — the thing doing the action.
- das Buch is in the accusative case because it is the direct object — the thing affected by the action.
A good way to see it is:
- Who does the action? → der Rückgabeautomat
- What gets processed/returned? → das Buch
Why is the verb split into bucht ... zurück?