Dienstag, 1. Februar 2011

German : adjective as noun

German : adjective as noun
excerpted from Norman Paxton's German Grammar, ch. 6, page 30-31.

1. Any adjective may be used as noun, in which case it will be written with a Capital letter.

2. it will follow the WEAK, MIXED or STRONG declension according to whether iti s PRECEDED by a " der word", a " mein word", or neither.

3. In other words, it will decline exactly as though it were an adjective FOLLOWED by a noun -- in many cases there could be said to be the word Mann or Frau understood, which overrides the rule that other pars of speech when used as nouns are always NEUTER.

eg

Der Fremde sagte nichts.

Ein Fremder steht draußen.

Ich habe Verwandte zu Besuch.

Sie ist eine alte Bekannte von uns.

Wir ehren das Gute, das Wahre und das Schöne.

4. A particularly frequent use of the adjective as a noun is AFTER etwas( something), nichts ( nothing), viel( much) and wenig ( little).
Adjectives following these words follow the STRONG declension (having no " der word" or " mein word" ).

eg.

Ich brauche etwas Kaltes zu trinken.

Ich habe nichts Neues dort gefunden.

Ich habe viel Gutes vom ihm gehört.

Er hat wenig Interessantes zu sagen.


2 Kommentare:

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Anonym hat gesagt…

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