Ich überrasche meinen Freund.

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Breakdown of Ich überrasche meinen Freund.

• der Freund: the friend
• mein: my; (masculine or neuter, nominative)
• überraschen: to surprise

Questions & Answers about Ich überrasche meinen Freund.

What case does meinen Freund take, and why?

It’s in the accusative case because überraschen is a transitive verb that takes a direct object, and direct objects in German are marked with the accusative.

Why is it meinen Freund and not mein Freund?

Freund is masculine singular, and possessive pronouns like mein follow the same declension as ein. In the masculine accusative, you add -en, so mein becomes meinen.

Why is the verb überrasche written as one word, instead of splitting über off like in aufstehen → stehen auf?

Because über here is an inseparable prefix. Inseparable prefixes (be-, ent-, er-, ver-, zer-, über-, etc.) always stay attached to the verb in all finite forms, never moving to the end.

Where is the word stress in überrasche, and how can I tell?

The stress falls on the verb stem: überRASche. Inseparable prefixes do not carry stress, so the emphasis is on rasch.

Can I drop the final -e in überrasche and say ich überrasch meinen Freund?