Das Haus hat sechzehn Fenster.

the house

Breakdown of Das Haus hat sechzehn Fenster.

• haben: to have
• das Fenster: the window
• sechzehn: sixteen

Questions & Answers about Das Haus hat sechzehn Fenster.

Why is the verb hat used here instead of ist?

In German, haben means “to have,” while sein means “to be.” The sentence is talking about possession of windows, so you use the third-person singular form hat (he/she/it has). If you used ist, you’d be saying “the house is sixteen windows,” which doesn’t make sense.

What is the grammatical case of sechzehn Fenster?

It’s the accusative case because Fenster is the direct object of hat. In the singular, das Haus is the nominative subject, and sechzehn Fenster (“sixteen windows”) receives the action of having.

Why isn’t there an article (like die) before Fenster?

When you use a cardinal number (sechzehn, zwanzig, dreiunddreißig etc.), the noun it modifies usually appears without an article. So you say sechzehn Fenster rather than sechzehn die Fenster.

Why is Fenster unchanged in the plural? Shouldn’t there be an –n or –e ending?

Some German nouns have identical forms in singular and plural. Fenster happens to be one of them:

• Singular: ein Fenster
• Plural: zwei (or sechzehn) Fenster
  You just rely on the number to tell you it’s plural.