English Translation
The cat sat on the table.
“Die Katze saß auf dem Tisch” translates to “The cat sat on the table” in English. Let’s break down the German sentence into its grammatical components:
"Die" is the definite article for feminine, nominative case nouns in the singular form in German. Articles in German agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they are associated with.
"Katze" is a feminine noun in German, which means "cat." The noun is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence—the one doing the action (sitting).
"Saß" is the past tense (imperfect) of the verb "sitzen," which means "to sit." In German, verb conjugation agrees with the number and person of the subject. Here, "saß" is in the third person singular past tense, which matches the singular noun "Katze."
"Auf" is a preposition which can mean "on," "at," or "upon," depending on context. In German, prepositions can govern different cases depending on their usage. In this instance, "auf" is used with the dative case due to the static position being described (the cat is sitting on the table, as opposed to moving to the table).
"Dem" is the definite article for masculine and neuter nouns in the dative case in the singular form. However, "Tisch" is a masculine noun, and since it's in the dative case after the preposition "auf," it requires "dem" as the definite article. In this context, "dem" signifies "the" for the table upon which the cat is sitting.
"Tisch" is a masculine noun in the dative case which means "table." After certain prepositions, such as "auf" in this context, nouns will be in the dative case because it indicates a fixed location.
So, when put together, “Die Katze saß auf dem Tisch” forms a complete sentence in German that provides the information that the cat was sitting on the table. This sentence uses the past tense to describe a completed action or a state that was valid in the past.