Question for German-speakers

[Tami]

This summer, I've been brushing up my German. Mainly because my SO is half-German, and because it's interesting.

Please could somebody explain to me why "gross" is used in the "grossen" form in the following sentence?

"Ich wohne in einer grossen Stadt"

I understand that "die Stadt" is feminine, and that "einer" is the feminine dative. But why on earth is "gross" used in what could only be (afaik) either the masc. accusative or the neuter dative??

Thanks a lot!

[Vesa]

I don't speak too much German, but the dative form for adjectives is always -en. Just like "Im tiefen Keller".

Cheers,
Vesa

[Tami]

Thanks Vesa!

[Bonobo]

What Marcel says. (just to post a working link)

http://www.dict.cc/?s=gro%C3%9F


Greetings, Tom

[SpongeBob]

Actually, 'groß' / 'großen' / ... is the correct spelling, because the preceeding vowel is long. Same goes for similar cases like 'Straße' (street). Double-s 'ss' only after short vowels.

[GoRo]

Actually, 'groß' / 'großen' / ... is the correct spelling, because the preceeding vowel is long. Same goes for similar cases like 'Straße' (street). Double-s 'ss' only after short vowels.

... or if there is no "ß" available on your keyboard.

Cheers,
Rainer
(GoChild GoRo with 2295349 points)

[Marcus]

ALT+0223 does the trick: ß

I love alt codes.

[RBerenguel]

Actually, 'groß' / 'großen' / ... is the correct spelling, because the preceeding vowel is long. Same goes for similar cases like 'Straße' (street). Double-s 'ss' only after short vowels.

Hmm I seem to remember from my German classes that the eszet sign was superseded by double s except for surnames and places?

Edit: nope, corrected after checking Wikipedia. I don't remember so many rules, or hsving problems with it. Weird, since I took like 5 courses on it. Maybe I kind of knew it better back then...

[Tami]

Zu allen meinen Freunde, vielen Danke fuer diese interessante und benuetzlichen Antworte.

The reason I spelled "grossen" like that is that I bought my computer in Japan, and don't know how to get it produce non-Japanese and non-English characters. Alt+0223, for instance, doesn't work. I don't have an opinion one way or the other about German orthography, but for the time being ue, oe, and ss are the easiest options for me.

Cheers!

[Bonobo]

[..] Alt+0223, for instance, doesn't work. I don't have an opinion one way or the other about German orthography, but for the time being ue, oe, and ss are the easiest options for me.

If you use OS X:

• For the trema or diaeresis sign (two dots “¨” above a vowel äöüïë) try alt+u (alt = option = ⌥) followed by the vowel.

• for the eszett letter ß try alt+s.


Herzlichen Gruß, Tom

[bayu]

Actually, 'groß' / 'großen' / ... is the correct spelling

unless you're in Switzerland, Liechtenstein or Namibia. In Switzerland the eszet officially got disused about 80 years ago (and it finally vanished 40 years ago from the last newspaper to cling on to it).

[Fedya]

Ah, but the Swiss don't speak German properly. Just try listening to Schwyzerdutsch.

For Tami, if you're on a Windows system, you may be able to install a different keyboard driver that will allow you to switch from one keyboard configuration to another. Of course, in that case there's the problem of remembering that German uses a QWERTZ keyboard, and where the umlaut characters are. (I switch back and forth between a Czech layout which has the umlauts and French accents easy to find, as well as characters like the ř if you can pronounce that. Not that I actually speak Czech, though.)

[tapir]

It is probably healthier to think of it like this, the dative form is only used in either article or adjectives, if an article is present, the adjectives use the accusative form. That means -en is not the dative form, as is instantly obvious, when you use a noun without articles.

"in einer großen Stadt"

"in großer Eile" (in a big hurry) !

"im großen Haus" - this looks like an exception, but here "im" is shortened for "in dem" so this might confuse learners (an dem -> am is similar)

[Bill Spight]

auf dem -> aum?

[Uberdude]

Another question for German speakers: do you wince when you see my username without an umlaut or e? When I played Unreal Tournament I had an umlaut because that supported extended characters in usernames, but most places don't. I just find ueber a bit ugly, and uber has somewhat been adopted into English as a prefix meaning ~'super'.