Word
Seine Mitbewohnerin backt am Wochenende oft Kuchen.
Meaning
His female roommate often bakes cake on the weekend.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Seine Mitbewohnerin backt am Wochenende oft Kuchen.
oft
often
sein
his
das Wochenende
the weekend
der Kuchen
the cake
Questions & Answers about Seine Mitbewohnerin backt am Wochenende oft Kuchen.
Why is it Seine and not Sein or Seinen?
Seine is a possessive pronoun meaning his.
In German, possessive pronouns agree in gender, number, and case with the thing possessed, not with the owner.
- The possessed thing is Mitbewohnerin (roommate).
- Mitbewohnerin is feminine, singular, and here it is the subject in the nominative case.
For a feminine noun in the nominative singular, the correct form of sein- (his) is seine:
- seine Mitbewohnerin – his (female) roommate
Compare: - sein Mitbewohner – his (male) roommate (masculine nominative)
- seinen Mitbewohner – his (male) roommate (masculine accusative)
What does Mitbewohnerin mean exactly, and why the ending -in?
Mitbewohnerin means (female) roommate / flatmate / housemate.
- Mitbewohner = roommate (male or generic masculine)
- Adding -in makes it grammatically feminine: Mitbewohnerin = female roommate.
In the plural:
- Mitbewohner = male roommates / mixed group
- Mitbewohnerinnen = female roommates only
Also, Mitbewohnerin is capitalized because all nouns are capitalized in German.