Breakdown of Der Mann gibt heute ein Interview im Radio.
der Mann
the man
in
in
dem
the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
heute
today
Questions & Answers about Der Mann gibt heute ein Interview im Radio.
Why is it Der Mann and not Den Mann at the beginning of the sentence?
In German, the subject of a sentence must be in the nominative case. Der Mann is the nominative form of “the man.” Den Mann would be the accusative form, which you use for direct objects, not for the subject.
What does gibt mean here? Why don’t we say macht or hat an Interview?
In German you “give” an interview just as you do in English. The verb geben (to give) in the third-person singular present tense is gibt. Machen (“to make/do”) or haben (“to have”) are not idiomatic with Interview.
Why does Interview take the article ein, and why doesn’t it change form in the accusative?
Interview is a neuter noun in German. As a direct object it’s in the accusative case. For neuter nouns, the indefinite article “ein” looks the same in nominative and accusative. If it were masculine, you’d see einen. Also, all German nouns are capitalized.
Why is heute placed after the verb, and can we move it elsewhere in the sentence?