If you spend enough time waiting in line at a foreign embassy, you will notice people defined entirely by what they are doing. In German, you can turn an active verb or an adjective into a noun to describe a person in a specific role.
The present participle: People doing an action
To describe someone doing an action, you can turn a present participle (the infinitive + -d) into a noun. Just capitalize it, give it an article, and add the appropriate adjective ending!
For example, reisen (to travel) becomes reisend (traveling), giving us der Reisende (the traveler).
| The traveler must wait a long time in the embassy. | Der Reisende muss lange in der Botschaft warten. |
Similarly, someone who is waiting (warten) becomes der Wartende.
| The longer the person waiting stands at the counter, the angrier he gets. | Je länger der Wartende am Schalter steht, desto wütender wird er. |
Past participles and adjectives as nouns
You can also use this trick with past participles and regular adjectives to describe someone's status.
Someone who is grown up (erwachsen) is der Erwachsene (the adult). Someone who is employed (angestellt) is der Angestellte (the employee).
| The adult would like to apply for a visa. | Der Erwachsene möchte ein Visum beantragen. |
| The employee says that we must apply for the passport. | Der Angestellte sagt, dass wir den Pass beantragen müssen. |
Adjective endings still apply
Even though they are capitalized as nouns, these words still behave like adjectives. Their endings change depending on the grammatical case and the preceding article.
In the accusative and dative cases, the ending changes from -e to -en after a definite article. Notice how der Reisende and der Angestellte change below:
| The trainee is copying the application for the traveler. | Der Auszubildende kopiert den Antrag für den Reisenden. |
| The trainee helps the employee with the application. | Der Auszubildende hilft dem Angestellten mit dem Antrag. |
If you use a possessive pronoun (like mein) or an indefinite article (like ein), the noun takes the strong ending. For a masculine subject in the nominative case, this means adding -er.
Notice the difference between the strong ending in mein Bekannter and the weak ending in der Bekannte:
| My acquaintance had to go to the embassy yesterday. | Mein Bekannter musste gestern zur Botschaft gehen. |
| Ever since the acquaintance has been in the embassy, he has been nervous. | Seitdem der Bekannte in der Botschaft ist, ist er nervös. |
