Questions & Answers about Ein Nagel fällt auf den Boden.
Why is Ein the correct article for Nagel here, not Einen?
Because Ein Nagel is the subject of the sentence, and subjects are in the nominative case. The masculine nominative indefinite article is ein. Einen would be the masculine accusative form, but here Nagel isn’t the direct object.
Why is the noun Nagel capitalized in German?
In German orthography, all nouns are always capitalized, regardless of where they appear in a sentence. That’s one of the key differences from English.
Why does the verb fallen become fällt in this sentence?
Fallen is a strong (irregular) verb that undergoes a stem‐vowel change in the 2nd and 3rd person singular. In the 3rd person singular (er/sie/es), a becomes ä and you add -t:
fallen → er fällt (“he/it falls”).
Why is it auf den Boden and not auf dem Boden?