Wir kaufen zwei Liter Milch.

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Breakdown of Wir kaufen zwei Liter Milch.

• kaufen: to buy
• zwei: two
• die Milch: the milk

Questions & Answers about Wir kaufen zwei Liter Milch.

Why is there no “of” between the unit and the noun (no “von”): why zwei Liter Milch and not zwei Liter von Milch?

German typically expresses measure and content without a preposition: zwei Liter Milch, ein Glas Wasser, drei Flaschen Bier. You only use von when you need to make it definite/specific or contrastive, e.g. zwei Liter von der Milch (two liters of that particular milk we were talking about). The short form without von is by far the most common.

Why is there no article before Milch?

Mass nouns after a measure word usually appear without an article when the reference is indefinite: zwei Liter Milch, ein Kilo Reis. If you make it definite, you can add an article: zwei Liter der Milch (genitive) or colloquially zwei Liter von der Milch (with von + dative).

What case is the whole phrase zwei Liter Milch in?

It’s the direct object of kaufen, so the whole noun phrase is in the accusative. With no article, you can’t see case on the nouns here. A pronoun test shows it’s accusative: Wir kaufen sie (“We’re buying them/it”).

What case is Milch in within the phrase?

Grammatically it’s a “content/measure” complement often analyzed as a genitive attribute. If you make it explicit/definite, the genitive shows: zwei Liter der Milch (genitive singular of feminine die Milch). In the bare form (zwei Liter Milch) no article appears, so you don’t see genitive marking.