Das Kind sieht ein Schwein.

Because Kind is a neuter noun in German, and the nominative singular definite article for neuter nouns is das.

A very useful extra point: Kind ends in -d, but that does not tell you its gender. German noun gender often has to be learned with the noun.

Also, Kind is closely related to the diminutive form Kindchen, and diminutives in -chen are always neuter. That helps explain why Kind is das.

Because Schwein is also a neuter noun.

In this sentence, ein Schwein is the direct object, so it is in the accusative case. For a neuter noun, the indefinite article is:

• nominative: ein
• accusative: ein

So the form does not change here.

Compare:

• der Hund → einen Hund (masculine changes)
• das Schwein → ein Schwein (neuter stays the same)

• Das Kind is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence.
• ein Schwein is in the accusative case because it is the direct object—the thing being seen.

So the structure is:

• Das Kind = subject
• sieht = verb
• ein Schwein = object

Because in a normal German main clause, the finite verb usually comes in position 2.

Here the first element is Das Kind, so the verb sieht comes next:

• Das Kind | sieht | ein Schwein

This is one of the most important German word-order rules.

Because the subject is das Kind, which is third person singular (it).

The verb sehen is conjugated like this in the present tense:

• ich sehe
• du siehst
• er/sie/es sieht
• wir sehen
• ihr seht
• sie/Sie sehen

Since das Kind is grammatically es, the correct form is sieht.

sieht comes from the verb sehen.

A few things may look unusual:

• The ie in sieht makes a long ee sound.
• The h is not pronounced by itself here; it helps show that the vowel is long.
• This is a stem-changing verb: sehen changes to sieh- in some singular forms.

So:

• infinitive: sehen
• er/sie/es form: sieht

Because all German nouns are capitalized.

So:

• Kind is a noun → capitalized
• Schwein is a noun → capitalized

This is a standard rule in German, not something special about this sentence.

A rough English approximation is shvine.

Breaking it down:

• Sch = like English sh
• w = like English v
• ei = like English eye

So Schwein sounds roughly like shvיין / shvine.

A rough English approximation is zeet.

Breaking it down:

• s at the start of a word before a vowel is often pronounced like z
• ie = long ee
• h is not pronounced separately
• t is a normal t

So sieht sounds roughly like zeet.

Yes. This sentence matches English quite closely:

• Das Kind = the child
• sieht = sees
• ein Schwein = a pig

So this is a very straightforward sentence for beginners.

Yes, German allows more flexibility than English, but the basic sentence here is the most neutral one:

• Das Kind sieht ein Schwein.

You could also say:

• Ein Schwein sieht das Kind.

But that normally means A pig sees the child, because with these article forms, word order strongly influences who is understood as the subject.

So for this exact vocabulary, changing the order can change the meaning or create confusion.

Because the sentence uses the indefinite article ein, not the definite article das.

So:

• das Schwein = the pig
• ein Schwein = a pig

The sentence means the child sees a pig, not a specific pig already known in the conversation.

Yes, grammatically it is neuter, so pronouns referring back to das Kind are often es.

Example:

• Das Kind sieht ein Schwein. Es lacht. = The child sees a pig. It laughs.

This can feel a little odd to English speakers, because English usually uses he or she for a child when the sex is known. In German, the grammar follows the noun’s gender: das Kind → es.