einen versus ein

HANX

March 23, 2009

In lesson 1.2 when asking for a coffee, einen Kaffee is used. Why is einen used and not ein?

(deleted)

March 25, 2009

Hi there, the reason "einen" is used is because it is the Accusative case which turns "ein" into "einen". Have a look at Grammar lesson 6.2 to find out more about the Accusative. The interesting thing is that in spoken German you will often hear "ein Kaffee" just because it is very common to swallow endings, but "einen Kaffee" is definitely correct in this case. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have further questions.

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