Zehn Vögel sitzen auf dem Baum.

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Breakdown of Zehn Vögel sitzen auf dem Baum.

• sitzen: to sit
• der Vogel: the bird
• der Baum: the tree

Questions & Answers about Zehn Vögel sitzen auf dem Baum.

Why is there no article before Zehn Vögel?

In German, cardinal numbers (eins, zwei, zehn …) act like determiners themselves. You normally don’t add an extra article after a number. So you say zwei Hunde, drei Bücher, zehn Vögel, not die zehn Vögel (unless you want to specify “the ten birds” out of a larger group).

How is the plural form Vögel formed from Vogel?

Vogel is a strong masculine noun that forms its plural by adding an umlaut to the stem vowel and no additional ending. Thus der Vogel → die Vögel. Other examples: der Mann → die Männer, der Apfel → die Äpfel.

What case is Zehn Vögel in, and how can I tell?

Zehn Vögel is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence (the ones doing the sitting). In German, the subject takes nominative, and here there’s no article or adjective ending to change—just the plain plural noun.

Why is auf dem Baum in the dative case?

The preposition auf is a Wechselpräposition (two-way preposition).

• With motion (Wohin?), it takes accusative: Er klettert auf den Baum.
• With location (Wo?), it takes dative. Here we ask “Where are the birds?” → location → dative: dem is the dative of der (masculine), so auf dem Baum.