Breakdown of Ein Huhn läuft zwischen den Kühen und Schafen herum und sucht Futter.
Questions & Answers about Ein Huhn läuft zwischen den Kühen und Schafen herum und sucht Futter.
Huhn is a neuter noun: das Huhn.
In the nominative singular, the indefinite article is:
- masculine: ein Mann
- neuter: ein Huhn
- feminine: eine Frau
So both masculine and neuter use ein in the nominative; only feminine uses eine.
That’s why we say ein Huhn, not eine Huhn.
Läuft is the 3rd person singular (he/she/it) form of the verb laufen (to run, walk).
Laufen is irregular and changes its stem vowel in the du/er/sie/es forms:
- ich laufe
- du läufst
- er/sie/es läuft
- wir laufen
- ihr lauft
- sie/Sie laufen
So the au → äu change is regular for this verb in the 2nd and 3rd person singular.
Yes, herum belongs to the verb here. The full verb is herumlaufen (to run around, wander around). It is a separable verb.
In a main clause, separable prefixes go to the end:
- infinitive: herumlaufen
- main clause: Das Huhn läuft zwischen den Kühen und Schafen herum.
Meaning nuance:
- laufen alone: to run / walk
- herumlaufen: to run/walk around, aimlessly or in a loose area
So herum adds the idea of around, about, not in a straight purposeful line.
Zwischen is one of the so‑called two-way prepositions (Wechselpräpositionen). These can take:
- dative for a static location (where something is)
- accusative for a direction/motion (where something is going to)
In this sentence, the hen is moving within the area among the cows and sheep (a location that already exists), not moving from outside to between them. It’s describing where it is wandering, not the target of a movement.
So we use dative:
- zwischen den Kühen und Schafen (location: among the cows and sheep)
If we explicitly described movement into the space between them, we’d use accusative:
- Es läuft zwischen die Kühe. – It runs (to a place) between the cows.
Because den Kühen is dative plural.
- Nominative plural: die Kühe (the cows)
- Dative plural: den Kühen (to/at/among the cows)
The preposition zwischen takes dative here (see previous answer), and the dative plural definite article is always den, regardless of gender:
- den Männern (men)
- den Frauen (women)
- den Kindern (children)
- den Kühen (cows)
So zwischen den Kühen is “among the cows” with dative plural.
Again, this is because of the dative plural.
Rule: In the dative plural, most nouns add an extra -n (unless they already end in -n or -s):
- plural nominative: die Kühe → dative plural: den Kühen
- plural nominative: die Schafe → dative plural: den Schafen
So:
- zwischen den Kühen und Schafen = between/among the cows and sheep (dative plural everywhere)
Futter is a mass noun (like “food,” “water,” “sand” in English). When we speak about it in general or indefinitely, German often uses no article:
- Es sucht Futter. – It is looking for food (some food, food in general).
This is similar to English where we usually don’t say “It is looking for the food” unless we mean some specific food we already know about.
Using no article makes the meaning generic and unspecific: any suitable food, not a particular portion.
Es sucht das Futter is grammatically correct, but it sounds like it is searching for some specific, known food.
Nuance:
- sucht Futter – is looking for food in general, to eat something
- sucht das Futter – is looking for the food (e.g. the food that was put somewhere earlier, or the specific feed it usually gets)
In your sentence, we want the general idea “is foraging for food”, so bare Futter (no article) is more natural.
Because herum is the separable prefix of herumlaufen. In a main clause, the finite verb is in position 2, and the separable prefix goes to the end of the clause:
- Das Huhn läuft (Verb 2nd) … herum (prefix at the end).
The prepositional phrase zwischen den Kühen und Schafen is just extra information and can sit between the verb and the prefix:
- Das Huhn läuft [zwischen den Kühen und Schafen] herum.
You cannot move herum in front of läuft in a normal statement; that would break the verb.
In German (as in English), if two verbs share the same subject, you usually mention the subject only once and connect the verbs with und:
- Ein Huhn läuft … und sucht Futter.
= A hen runs … and looks for food.
If you want, you can repeat the subject or a pronoun, but it’s usually unnecessary and sometimes sounds heavier:
- Ein Huhn läuft zwischen den Kühen und Schafen herum, und es sucht Futter.
Both are grammatically fine; the version without repetition is the normal, smoother style.
They are related but not the same:
- das Huhn – general word for a chicken; can be used for the animal in general or as a species name.
- die Henne – specifically a female chicken (a hen).
- der Hahn – the male chicken (a rooster/cock).
- das Hähnchen – literally “little rooster,” but in modern usage it’s mostly the word for chicken meat or a small chicken for eating (like “roast chicken”).
In your sentence Ein Huhn läuft …, we are just talking about a chicken/hen in a neutral way.
Yes, that sentence is also perfectly correct:
- Ein Huhn sucht Futter und läuft zwischen den Kühen und Schafen herum.
Both versions are grammatical:
- Ein Huhn läuft … herum und sucht Futter.
- Ein Huhn sucht Futter und läuft … herum.
The difference is just in emphasis/order of information:
- Version 1 highlights first that it is wandering around among the animals, then adds that it’s searching for food.
- Version 2 highlights first that it is searching for food, then adds where/how it moves while doing so.
German allows some flexibility like this as long as verb positions and endings are correct.
You can say it both ways, but once is enough, and that’s what people usually do:
- Standard and natural: zwischen den Kühen und Schafen
- Also correct, but a bit heavier: zwischen den Kühen und den Schafen
In coordinated phrases, German often uses the article only before the first noun if both share the same case, number, and gender:
- mit den Freunden und Nachbarn
- für die Kinder und Eltern
So zwischen den Kühen und Schafen is the usual, more fluent choice.