Learn German A1: Grammar ” es gibt ” Lesson 23. If you are an adult learning German with no previous knowledge and learning the language on your own. Than this a course for you. While, You will find this course very well suited for your purposes.

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So, in this lesson, we have covered basic German grammar about ” es gibt.”

Es gibt

We use “es gibt” to express that something exists in a certain location.

To do that, we use the personal pronoun “es“ (it) together with the verb “geben“ (to give).

In this combination, “es gibt” means there is/there are. The phrase does not change whether it is describing one or many things!

For Examples, the following sentences expresses the existence of something:

Es gibt zwei Supermärkte in meiner Stadt. (There are two supermarkets in my town.)

Es gibt drei Wohnungen in meinem Haus. (There are three flats in my building.)

Es gibt einen Supermarkt in meiner Stadt. (There is a supermarket in my town.)

Es gibt einen Bahnhof in der Stadt. (There’s a train station in the city.)

Es gibt ein Krankenhaus in meinem Viertel. (There’s a hospital in my neighborhood.)

Es gibt eine Bank in der Nähe. (There is a bank nearby.)

Es gibt eine Post neben dem Restaurant. (There is a post office next to the restaurant.)

While, for plurals we do not add articles before noun, as you can see through following examples: While, one example is for singular noun and we add an article with that.

Es gibt eine Apotheke in der Nähe. (There is a pharmacy nearby.)

Es gibt Apotheken in Frankfurt. (There are pharmacies in Frankfurt.)

Es gibt Restaurants am Bahnhof. (There are restaurants at the train station.)

Gibt es?

If you want to ask whether something exists somewhere, you just swap the word order of “es gibt” (there is/there are) to “gibt es” (is there/are there).

The rest of the sentence stays the same. Look at the example below!

Gibt es hier eine Apotheke? (Is there a pharmacy here?)

Here is more examples:

Gibt es einen Supermarkt in deiner Stadt? (Is there a supermarket in your city?)

Gibt es einen Bahnhof in der Stadt? (Is there a train station in the city?)

Which Case should apply for ” es gibt ”?

“Es gibt” is always followed by an object in the accusative case.

Read also: Learn German A1: Intro to German Cases (Accusative Case)

Remember: the accusative case is used for the person or thing that is affected by the action in the sentence, which changes the spelling of the article.

When describing a noun in the plural we can remove the article, as you can see in the examples below.

Es gibt eine Straße in meiner Stadt. (There is a street in my town.)

Es gibt Krankenhäuser in Frankfurt. (There are hospitals in Frankfurt.)

Gibt es hier einen Supermarkt? (Is there a supermarket here?)

What about Negation?

If we want to express that a certain thing is not there, we add “kein/keine” after “es gibt”.

Read also: Learn German A1: Negations in German Lesson 18

“Kein” and “keine” follow the same pattern as the indefinite articles “ein” and “eine” but mean “none” instead of “a”.

The following sentences speak of the absence of something. While, You can also notice the position of ”kein” and ”keine”, It has been used exactly after ” es gibt. ”

Es gibt keinen Supermarkt in meinem Dorf. (There is no supermarket in my village.)

Es gibt keine Apotheke in der Nähe. (There is no pharmacy near.)

Es gibt keine Post in meinem Dorf. (There is no post office in my village.)

Es gibt keinen Bahnhof in der Stadt. (There is no train station in the city.)

Es gibt kein Krankenhaus in meinem Viertel. (There is no hospital in my neighbourhood.)

Es gibt kein Restaurant in der Nähe. (There is no restaurant nearby.)

Es gibt keine Post in meiner Straße. (There is no post office in my street.)

Conversation Exercise

Welcome your new neighbours and tell them what they can find in the city. Give them directions to your favourite restaurant, so they can have a great first meal in their new home town.

Example:

Es gibt hier viele gute Restaurants und schöne Bars. Mein Lieblingsrestaurant ist neben dem Bahnhof. Es gibt einen Supermarkt in meiner Stadt. Während, Es gibt kein Krankenhaus in meinem Viertel. Es gibt eine Post neben dem Restaurant. Es gibt eine Bank in der Nähe.

Read also: Learn German A1: In the City Lesson 22

Lastly, Write your questions about ” Learn German A1: Grammar ” es gibt ” Lesson 23 ” in comment box section.

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