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German native speakers: is "Was für einen schönen Tag heute" correct?
I am puzzled because I have seen "Was für ein schöner Tag heute" on a German website, and on investigation, found other phrases where "was für" is apparently followed by the nominative of masculine nouns. I thought "für" was always followed by the accusative? Would be very grateful for your help! Many thanks.
Thank you everyone for responding. I'm not too bothered about the lack of verb as such -- it's pretty normal to say: "What a pretty dress!", or "What a sharp knife!" or "What a fantastic car!" in English and I imagine it is in German too.
What I'm not clear about is solely why, if "für" always takes the accusative, exclamations are "Was für ein schöner Tag!" or "Was für ein gutaussehender Mann!" instead of the "einen ... -en" construction?
FrackledJJ
Ah, thank you! Thank you for a most helpful response. I think I begin to see light ... So what you are saying is, it is "Was für ein schöner Tag!" because this is *short for* "Was für ein schöner Tag heute ist!" and so "ein schöner Tag" must be in the nominative case after the verb "sein"?
I do believe you all that it's correct, it's just understanding *why*.
4 Answers
- Anonymous1 decade agoFavorite Answer
The others are right, the sentence is not really correct. It should, grammatically correct, be: "Was für ein schöner Tag heute ist!" (What a great day it is today!), but nobady really says that.
As to your whole question: There are sentences like that. "Was für ein gutassuehender Mann!" "Was für ein schöner Tag!" "Was für ein hässlicher Rock!" and as you can see, all of those are sentences in which you state an opinion. And quite a strong one, at that.
This has little to do with using the word "für", though. I can say: "Ich habe Kuchen für heute Nachmittag gekauft!" or "Anna hat mir das für dich mitgegeben!"... lots of different ways to use that little word. You are asking about the "einen ... -en" constructions, though, and those are, set after the word "für", usually just used in questions.
"Was für einen Tag haben wir heute?" "Montag!" "Was für einen Pullover möchten Sie kaufen?" "Einen Roten." And it's not only the masculine form, either. "Was für eine Farbe sollen die Rosen haben?" "Weiß, bitte." "Was für ein Auto fahren Sie?" "Einen Toyota." So the accusative form is always used in QUESTIONS that use the word "für", but it's not always the masculine form of the accusative! You need to pay attention to the gender of the substantive you are using with it.
Whew! I hope that helped you a little.
@HappyChip: Yeah. You phrased it much more gramatically correct and elegant than me, but that was, essentially, what I wanted to say. I'm just not good with all those grammatical terms. ;))
Source(s): German native - 1 decade ago
It's often used in german though it's grammatically incorrect because there is no verb . i can't tell you about the accusative thing because i dont know the rules for this myself.
i think something more like :
es ist ein schöner tag heute would be correct
Source(s): native speaker - cymry3jonesLv 71 decade ago
'Was für ein schöner Tag Heute! 'It's often said in German, but grammatically it's incorrect. No verb.