Word
Der Arzt arbeitet im Krankenhaus.
Meaning
The doctor works in the hospital.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Der Arzt arbeitet im Krankenhaus.
in
in
arbeiten
to work
der Arzt
the doctor
das Krankenhaus
the hospital
Questions & Answers about Der Arzt arbeitet im Krankenhaus.
Why is the article der used with Arzt instead of den or some other article?
In German the nominative case marks the subject of the sentence. Arzt is the subject here, so we use the masculine singular nominative definite article der.
- Den would be the masculine singular accusative article (used for direct objects), not appropriate for the subject.
Why is the phrase im Krankenhaus used instead of ins Krankenhaus or in das Krankenhaus?
- Im is a contraction of in
- dem.
- When expressing location (being inside a place without movement), German uses in with the dative case, so dem Krankenhaus → im Krankenhaus.
- Ins (in + das) is the accusative form, used when indicating movement into a place. Here the doctor already works inside the hospital (no motion), so we choose the dative form im.
How do we know Krankenhaus takes dem (and becomes im) rather than der or den?