Voted Best Answer
Sep 04, 2021 - 12:09 AM
Dan,
I’ll try to help with both issues. However, first a disclaimer: I’m less than ½ finished with Level 2, so I’m definitely not an expert.
1. How can “es gibt” have a direct object.
In other words, how can “is” have a direct object. It seems like the answer has to do with the history of the word(s) “es gibt”. It actually does not literally translate to “there is”! As noted at 5:00 mark of the Level 1, Session 9 Tutorial, “es gibt” actually translates literally to “it gives”. (It’s based on the verb “geben”.) This was what the phrase meant centuries ago. However, the phrase has gone through some transformations in its meaning, and now it includes “there is/are”. I imagine that, even though the phrase now has the implication of “there is”, it still takes the same grammar points as the original meaning, including the need for or acceptance of direct objects.
2. Direct object, and other article endings.
Articles (and possessive pronouns) in German can be very confusing. There are THREE(3) genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. They each have different endings depending on the situation. For instance, for direct object, masculine articles add -n or -en to the end of the article, while neuter and feminine do not (den, das, die).
In the example you gave, “der Park” is masculine, and as a direct object it becomes “einen Park”. However, “das Krankenhaus” is neuter, and it keeps the default ending, “ein Krankenhaus”.
I hope this helps! (And I hope that someone with more expertise chimes in.)
