Learn Hardcore German: Die Bäuerin zeigt uns die Kühe. - The female farmer shows us the cows.

The ending -in is the normal way to form a feminine version of many professions and roles (der Lehrer → die Lehrerin, der Arzt → die Ärztin, etc.).

The article die here does two things:

It marks grammatical gender: Bäuerin is grammatically feminine.
It marks case: die Bäuerin is in the nominative case as the subject of the sentence.

Why does Bäuerin have an umlaut (äu) and not just Bauerin?

The base word is der Bauer. When forming the feminine with -in, German often adds an umlaut to the stem vowel if possible:

Bauer → Bäuerin
similarly: Arzt → Ärztin, Wirt → Wirtin (no umlaut here, because i cannot be umlauted)

You can’t write Bauerin; that would be considered a spelling mistake in standard German. The correct feminine form is always Bäuerin.

Why is the verb zeigt and not zeigen?

The infinitive is zeigen (to show). German verbs are conjugated according to the subject:

ich zeige
du zeigst
er/sie/es zeigt
wir zeigen
ihr zeigt
sie/Sie zeigen

The subject here is die Bäuerin = sie (she), third person singular, so we use zeigt.

So: Die Bäuerin zeigt … = The (female) farmer shows …

Why is zeigt in the second position in the sentence?

German main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb (here: zeigt) must be the second element in the sentence.

Die Bäuerin (1st element: subject phrase)
zeigt (2nd element: finite verb)
uns die Kühe (rest of the sentence)

Even if you move other parts around, the verb stays second:

Uns zeigt die Bäuerin die Kühe.
Die Kühe zeigt die Bäuerin uns.

In all of these, the conjugated verb (zeigt) is in second position.

What exactly is uns, and what case is it in?

Uns is the 1st person plural object pronoun (“us”).

It can be either dative or accusative, depending on the verb. With zeigen, the pattern is:

jemandem etwas zeigen = to show someone something

So jemandem is dative, and the thing shown is accusative.

In this sentence:

uns = dative (indirect object) → to us
die Kühe = accusative (direct object) → the cows

So uns here is dative plural, functioning as the indirect object.

Why is there no word for “to” before uns, like in English “shows to us”?

German often does not use a preposition where English uses “to”. Instead, it uses the dative case for the indirect object.

Compare:

English: She shows the cows to us
German: Sie zeigt uns die Kühe.

The “to” is expressed by the dative form uns, not with a preposition.

Many verbs work like this: geben, zeigen, schenken, erzählen all typically take a dative person and an accusative thing.

Why is die Kühe also die, and what case is it?

Die Kühe is the plural of die Kuh (the cow).

Singular: die Kuh
Plural: die Kühe

The article die is used for all plural nouns in the nominative and accusative:

Nominative plural: die Kühe sind auf der Weide.
Accusative plural: Wir sehen die Kühe.

In Die Bäuerin zeigt uns die Kühe, die Kühe is the direct object (the thing being shown), so it is in the accusative plural.

The form of the article happens to be the same as nominative plural (both are die), but its function here is accusative.

Why does Kühe have an umlaut, and how is the plural formed?

The singular is die Kuh. Many German nouns form the plural with:

an umlaut on the vowel, and
an -e ending.

So:

die Kuh → die Kühe (vowel changes from u → ü, and you add -e)

Similarly:

die Maus → die Mäuse
der Baum → die Bäume

There’s no extra plural article form; it stays die in both nominative and accusative plural.

Can I change the word order of uns and die Kühe? For example: Die Bäuerin zeigt die Kühe uns.

You can change the word order, but there are preferences:

Die Bäuerin zeigt uns die Kühe.
→ Most natural and neutral. Pronouns usually come before nouns.
Die Bäuerin zeigt die Kühe uns.
→ Grammatically correct, but sounds marked or unusual in standard modern German. It can be used for specific emphasis (for example, contrasting with someone else).
Uns zeigt die Bäuerin die Kühe.
→ Also correct. Putting uns first emphasizes “us”: It’s us that the farmer is showing the cows to.

General rule: short pronouns tend to be placed earlier than full noun phrases in the middle of the sentence.

Why is it uns and not wir?

Wir and uns are different cases of the same pronoun:

wir = 1st person plural nominative (subject form)
- Wir sehen die Kühe. (We see the cows.)
uns = 1st person plural dative or accusative (object form)
- Sie zeigt uns die Kühe. (She shows the cows to us.)

In Die Bäuerin zeigt uns die Kühe, “we” are not the subject. The subject is die Bäuerin (she). We are the indirect object, so we must use uns, not wir.

Why are there two die articles in one sentence (die Bäuerin / die Kühe)?

German uses the definite article for each separate noun phrase that is definite:

die Bäuerin = the farmer (subject, feminine singular, nominative)
die Kühe = the cows (object, plural, accusative)

English only says the once:

The farmer shows us the cows.

German must mark each noun phrase for gender, number, and case, so the article appears in front of each definite noun phrase, and it can happen that both are die for different reasons:

first die: feminine singular, nominative
second die: plural, accusative

They just happen to look the same, but they are doing different grammatical jobs.

How do you pronounce Bäuerin and Kühe?

Approximate pronunciations (IPA and English hints):

Bäuerin: /ˈbɔʏ̯əʁɪn/
- Bäu = like “boy” but with lips more rounded
- -e- (the extra e written as -er-) is a little “uh/ə” sound
- r is usually a soft, back “r” in standard German
- -in = like “in”
Roughly: “BOY-uh-rin” (but with a more rounded o/ö sound).
Kühe: /ˈkyːə/
- Kü- = k
  - long ü (like saying English “ee” with rounded lips)
- -he = a very short “uh/ə” sound; the h is often not very prominent here
Roughly: “KUE-uh”, with Kü said on one long syllable and then a tiny “uh”.

How would the sentence change if the farmer were male?

You would use the masculine form der Bauer instead of die Bäuerin:

Der Bauer zeigt uns die Kühe.
= The (male) farmer shows us the cows.

Everything else (verb form, pronouns, objects) stays the same, because the subject is still third person singular.

How would you say this in the past tense?

Two common options:

Perfekt (very common in spoken German):
- Die Bäuerin hat uns die Kühe gezeigt.
- Literally: “The farmer has shown us the cows.”
Structure:
- hat = auxiliary verb (haben, 3rd person singular)
- gezeigt = past participle of zeigen at the end
Präteritum (simple past, more common in writing, especially narrative):
- Die Bäuerin zeigte uns die Kühe.
- “The farmer showed us the cows.”

Both mean the same in most contexts; choice depends on style and region.