Substantivierte Adjektive und Partizipien
Substantivierte Adjektive — for English Speakers
Introduction
German freely converts adjectives and participles into nouns: 'der Angestellte' (the employee, lit. the employed one), 'das Neue' (the new thing), 'nichts Besonderes' (nothing special). English can partially do this ('the rich', 'the accused') but usually adds a noun ('the rich people'). In German, these substantivated adjectives still decline like adjectives — their endings change with case, gender, and article type.
German vs English
In German
Der Angestellte hat gekündigt. (the employee)
In English
The employee resigned. (English uses a separate noun)
Key Difference
German uses the adjective as a noun with adjective endings; English has separate words for most.
In German
Nichts Neues. (nothing new)
In English
Nothing new.
Key Difference
Both work similarly here — German capitalizes and adds an ending, English doesn't.
Common Mistakes for English Speakers
Der Angestellter hat gekündigt.
Using strong declension after a definite article — after 'der', the adjective-noun takes weak ending -e, not -er.
Ich habe nichts Neues gehört. → correct. But: Ich habe nichts neues gehört.
Forgetting to capitalize — once an adjective functions as a noun, it must be capitalized.
Practice Examples
Gibt es etwas Neues?
Is there anything new?
Die Kranke wurde ins Krankenhaus gebracht.
The sick woman was taken to the hospital.
Das Gute daran ist die Erfahrung.
The good thing about it is the experience.
Memory Tip
Substantivated adjectives = adjectives promoted to nouns — they get capitalized but KEEP their adjective endings.
View Grammar Rule
Substantivierte Adjektive und Partizipien
Substantivierte Adjektive — C1
Practice Exercises
Substantivierte Adjektive und Partizipien Übungen
8 exercises
Other Languages
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