Die Personalabteilung bestätigt meinen Resturlaub.

Because Personalabteilung is a feminine noun in German. The head of the compound is Abteilung (department), and Abteilung is feminine, so the whole compound is feminine too.

• die Abteilung
• therefore: die Personalabteilung

In compounds, the grammatical gender usually comes from the last part of the word.

It is a compound noun, which is very common in German.

It is made up of:

• Personal = staff, personnel, HR-related
• Abteilung = department

So Personalabteilung literally means something like personnel department, which corresponds to HR department in natural English.

Because it is the thing doing the action. In this sentence, the HR department is the one that confirms something.

So:

• Die Personalabteilung = subject
• bestätigt = verb
• meinen Resturlaub = direct object

A useful question is: Who confirms?
Answer: Die Personalabteilung.

Because Resturlaub is the direct object of the verb bestätigen, so it is in the accusative case.

Resturlaub is masculine:

• nominative: mein Resturlaub
• accusative: meinen Resturlaub

That is why the possessive changes from mein to meinen.

This is one of the key patterns for masculine nouns in the accusative.

You learn it with its article: der Resturlaub.

So the forms are:

• nominative: der Resturlaub
• accusative: den Resturlaub

With a possessive:

• nominative: mein Resturlaub
• accusative: meinen Resturlaub

Again, in compounds, the gender usually comes from the final element. The last part here is Urlaub, and der Urlaub is masculine.

It is another compound noun:

• Rest = remainder, remaining amount
• Urlaub = vacation leave / holiday leave

So Resturlaub means remaining vacation days or unused leave.

In workplace German, it usually refers to the amount of paid leave you still have left.

Because the subject is die Personalabteilung, which is grammatically third person singular.

The infinitive is bestätigen = to confirm.

Present tense:

• ich bestätige
• du bestätigst
• er/sie/es bestätigt
• wir bestätigen
• ihr bestätigt
• sie/Sie bestätigen

Since die Personalabteilung is equivalent to sie = it/she grammatically, the verb is bestätigt.

Because this is a normal main clause in German, and in main clauses the finite verb usually comes in second position.

So the structure is:

1. Die Personalabteilung
2. bestätigt
3. meinen Resturlaub

This is the standard subject–verb–object pattern.

You could also change the emphasis and say:

• Meinen Resturlaub bestätigt die Personalabteilung.

But the verb still stays in second position.

Because all nouns are capitalized in German.

So in this sentence:

• Personalabteilung = noun
• Resturlaub = noun

That is why they begin with capital letters.

This is a basic but very important rule in German spelling.

Not exactly.

• bestätigen = to confirm, to verify, to acknowledge as correct
• genehmigen = to approve, to authorize

So if the HR department is saying that your remaining leave balance is correct, bestätigt makes sense.

If they are giving permission for you to take time off, German would more likely use genehmigt.

So the difference is:

• confirming information → bestätigen
• giving approval → genehmigen

Not always. A literal translation like remaining vacation helps you understand the German word, but in natural English the best translation often depends on context.

Possible natural translations include:

• remaining leave
• remaining vacation days
• unused vacation
• vacation balance

So it is useful to understand the parts of the German word, but not to expect one fixed English equivalent in every situation.

Yes, in many workplaces that would be understandable, and HR is widely used in German business language too. But die Personalabteilung is a very standard and fully German term.

So both can appear, depending on style:

• die Personalabteilung = more traditional / fully German
• die HR-Abteilung = more modern/international business style

A few things:

• Personalabteilung is a long compound, so say it in parts:
  Per-so-nal-ab-tei-lung
• Abteilung has the sound eu/ei in -teilung, pronounced roughly like English eye
• bestätigt contains ä, which is different from plain a
• meinen has two syllables: mei-nen
• Resturlaub is also a compound:
  Rest-urlaub

A good strategy is to break long German nouns into smaller parts and practice them piece by piece.