Breakdown of Welchen Film schauen wir heute Abend?
Questions & Answers about Welchen Film schauen wir heute Abend?
Because Film is the direct object of the sentence, so it has to be in the accusative case.
- der Film = nominative
- den Film = accusative
The question word welch- changes its ending to match the noun’s gender, number, and case. Since Film is masculine singular accusative, the correct form is welchen.
Compare:
- Welcher Film ist neu? = Which film is new?
- Film is the subject, so nominative.
- Welchen Film schauen wir? = Which film are we watching?
- Film is the object, so accusative.
Welchen is the accusative masculine form of welcher, which means which.
It works like a question word that also behaves a bit like an article. Its form changes depending on the noun that follows.
For example:
- welcher Film = which film
- welche Serie = which series
- welches Buch = which book
- welche Filme = which films
In your sentence, welchen matches Film because Film is masculine singular accusative.