Haben und der Akkusativ
Back in Lesson 6 you said "Ich habe zwei Geschwister" without stopping to ask why haben looked slightly irregular, or why the article on the thing you "have" sometimes changes. Today, both.
| ich | habe |
|---|---|
| du | hast |
| er/sie/es | hat |
| Sie | haben |
Like sein (Lesson 1), haben is irregular - it drops the -b- for du/er (hast, hat) instead of following the regular -st/-t pattern cleanly. Full table: Reference - haben & Accusative.
The thing you "have" is the direct object of the sentence - grammatically, it's in the accusative case. At A1, there's really only one change to learn:
| Gender | Nominative | Accusative |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | der / ein | den / einen |
| feminine, neuter, plural | (unchanged) | (unchanged) |
Ich habe einen Bruder. (der Bruder is masculine → einen)
Ich habe eine Schwester. (die Schwester is feminine → no change)
Ich habe ein Kind. (das Kind is neuter → no change)
That's genuinely the whole rule for now: only masculine changes, everything else stays as you already learned it in Lesson 4.
1. "I have." - Ich ______.
2. "Do you [informal] have a brother?" - ______ du einen Bruder?
3. "I have a table." (der Tisch) - Ich habe ______ Tisch.
4. "I have a bag." (die Tasche) - Ich habe ______ Tasche.
5. Which gender's article actually changes in the accusative?
Cross-checked against the Goethe-Institut A1 practice materials.
Want to try more accusative sentences with your own vocabulary? Ask your teaching agent to check your article choices.