When planning a secret mission, you need to talk about the different types of people involved—from volunteers to strangers to bad guys.
Turning Adjectives into Nouns
In English, we often say "the new one", "the stranger", or "a volunteer". In German, you can turn an adjective into a noun that describes a person simply by capitalizing it.
For example, the adjective neu (new) becomes a noun representing a new person:
Even though these words act as nouns, they still take standard adjective endings based on gender, case, and the preceding article.
Subjects (The Nominative Case)
With a definite article (der, die), the article shows the gender, so the adjective noun takes an -e ending in the nominative singular:
With an indefinite masculine article (ein), the adjective shows the gender with an -er ending:
For a feminine subject (eine), the ending is -e:
Direct Objects (The Accusative Case)
Whether you use an indefinite (einen) or definite article (den), a masculine adjective noun takes the -en ending in the accusative case:
The Dative Case
Nominalized adjectives also take an -en ending in the dative case, such as after prepositions like mit or von:
