Word
Der Techniker bearbeitet heute das Dokument im Büro.
Meaning
The technician edits the document in the office today.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Der Techniker bearbeitet heute das Dokument im Büro.
in
in
dem
the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
heute
today
das Büro
the office
Questions & Answers about Der Techniker bearbeitet heute das Dokument im Büro.
Why is it Der Techniker and not Den Techniker or Dem Techniker?
Der Techniker is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence – the person who is doing the action.
- der = nominative singular masculine
- den = accusative singular masculine (used for direct objects)
- dem = dative singular masculine (used mainly for indirect objects)
In this sentence:
- Wer bearbeitet das Dokument? (Who is editing the document?)
→ Der Techniker.
So you need the nominative form: der.
Why is it das Dokument, and not der Dokument or dem Dokument?
The noun Dokument is neuter in German, so its article in the dictionary form is das Dokument.
In the sentence it is the direct object (= the thing being worked on), so it is in the accusative case. For neuter nouns, nominative and accusative are the same:
- Nominative neuter: das Dokument
- Accusative neuter: das Dokument
That’s why you see das Dokument here, not dem Dokument (which would be dative).
What are the cases of each noun in this sentence?