Word
Die Kinder werfen den Ball im Garten.
Meaning
The children throw the ball in the garden.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Die Kinder werfen den Ball im Garten.
das Kind
the child
der Garten
the garden
im
in the; (masculine or neuter)
den
the; (masculine, accusative)
Questions & Answers about Die Kinder werfen den Ball im Garten.
Why is it "den Ball" and not "der Ball"?
Because German marks case on the article, and the verb werfen takes a direct object in the accusative. Ball is masculine, so the accusative definite article is den. Der Ball is nominative (used for the subject), not correct for the object.
- Masculine: der → den (acc.)
- Feminine: die → die
- Neuter: das → das
- Plural: die → die
Why is it "im Garten" and not "in den Garten"?
German in is a two-way preposition:
- Dative = location (where?): im Garten = in dem Garten (in the garden)
- Accusative = direction (into/onto where?): in den Garten = into the garden
Your sentence describes where the action happens, so it uses the dative.
What exactly does "im" stand for?
im is the contraction of in dem (dative). It’s used with masculine or neuter singular nouns in the dative. Related:
- ins = in das (accusative)
- There’s no standard contraction for in den.
Why is it "die Kinder" and not "den Kinder"?
Because die Kinder is the subject in the nominative plural. Kinder is the plural of das Kind. Dative plural would be den Kindern (note the -n on the noun), but that’s not needed here because it’s not a dative object.