| 24.5 declension of substantivated adjectives |
| 24.5.1 What is a substantivated adjective? |
To form a noun from an adjective in English you just put an article before the adjective and you are done.
| Examples | |
| red = | the red |
| good = | the good |
| nice = | the nice |
| fair = | the fair |
In German it's actually the same. The only difference is that there are three articles that can be used.
| Example 1 | ||
| rot* = | das Rote |  |
| der Rote | ||
| die Rote | ||
| die Roten | ||
| Example 2 | ||
| gut = | das Gute | |
| der Gute | ||
| die Gute | ||
| die Guten | ||
| Example 3 | ||
| schön = | das Schöne | |
| der Schöne | ||
| die Schöne | ||
| die Schönen | ||
| Example 4 | ||
| gerecht = | das Gerechte | |
| der Gerechte | ||
| die Gerechte | ||
| die Gerechten | ||
(* Ok, we admit it there is an ending. But don't kill the messenger! You know that in the old times the messenger of bad news was often killed. Luckily we live in modern times!
The declension of substantivated adjectives is not different from the declension of "normal" adjectives. It just depends on
a) gender and number of the noun (substantivated adjective!)
c) is there an article or a possessive pronoun
| Let's look at some examples |
| first example | |
| Die Guten kommen in den
Himmel, die Bösen kommen überall hin. = The good go to heaven the bad get everywhere. |
|
| declension is Nominative | ||
| gut | |
good |
| die Guten (masculine/feminine, plural) | |
the good |
The table we need is the one with the definite article before the adjective:
| Endings of the declensions with definite article | ||||||||
| neutral | singular | plural | masculine | singular | plural | feminine | singular | plural |
| Nominative | -e | -en | Nominative | -e | -en | Nominative | -e |
-en |
| Genitive | -en | -en | Genitive | -en | -en | Genitive | -en | -en |
| Dative | -en | -en | Dative | -en | -en | Dative | -en | -en |
| Accusative | -e | -en | Accusative | -en | -en | Accusative | -e | -en |
| second example | |
| Der Glanz des Schönen erhebt
die Seele. = The shine of the beautiful heightens the soul. |
|
| declension is Genitive | ||
| schön | |
beautiful |
| das Schöne (neutral, singular) | |
the beautiful |
Isn't it romantic? Now we have a little contradiction to the romance - the analysis. The table we need is the same as before.
| third example | |
| Die Ehrlichen waren in
der Minderheit. = The honest were in minority. |
|
| declension is Nominative | ||
| ehrlich | |
honest |
| die Ehrlichen (nominative, masculine/feminine, plural) | |
the honest |
The table we need is again the same as before to receive the ending we need.
| fourth example | |
| Einige Glückliche haben
gewonnen. = Some lucky (ones) have won. |
|
| declension is Nominative | ||
| glücklich | |
happy, lucky |
| die Glücklichen (nominative, masculine/feminine, plural) | |
the lucky (ones) |
In this case we have an indefinite article. Therefore we need the table with the indefinite articles.
| Endings of the declensions with indefinite article | ||||||||
| neutral | singular | plural | masculine | singular | plural | feminine | singular | plural |
| Nominative | -es | -e | Nominative | -er | -e | Nominative | -e |
-e |
| Genitive | -en | -er | Genitive | -en | -er | Genitive | -en | -er |
| Dative | -en | -en | Dative | -en | -en | Dative | -en | -en |
| Accusative | -es | -e | Accusative | -en | -e | Accusative | -e | -e |
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