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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).

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Similarly, someone who is waiting (*warten*) becomes **der Wartende**.

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### 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).

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### 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:

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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**:

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Nouns from participles (der Reisende...)

adjective

adverb

auxiliary verb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and gender (der, die, das)

Indefinite articles (ein, eine)

Regular verbs and statement word order (ich -e, er -t)

The second person (du -st, Sie -en)

Yes/No questions

The verb 'to have' (habe, hast, hat)

Plural pronouns and regular verbs (wir, ihr, sie)

Plural 'to be' and 'to have' (sind, haben)

Plural nouns and the plural article (die)

Sentence negation (nicht)

Noun negation (kein, keine)

Question words (wer, was, wo, wie)

Numbers 0 to 12 (null, eins, zwei)

The accusative case (den, die, das)

Indefinite accusative articles (einen, keinen)

Direct object pronouns (mich, dich, ihn)

There is / there are (es gibt)

Vowel changes: e to i/ie (er spricht, sie liest)

Vowel changes: a to ä (er fährt)

Weather and conditions (es regnet)

First- and second-person possessives in the nominative (mein, dein, Ihr)

First- and second-person possessives in the accusative (meinen, deinen, Ihren)

Third-person and plural possessives (sein, ihr, unser, euer)

Possession with names (Annas Auto)

Demonstrative pronouns (dieser, diese, dieses)

Expressing preference (gern, lieber)

Asking about direction and origin (woher, wohin)

Expressing ability (können)

Polite requests (möchten)

Expressing intention (wollen)

Modal verbs of obligation and permission (müssen, dürfen)

Separable prefix verbs

Adverbs of frequency (immer, oft, manchmal, nie)

The Dative case and definite articles (dem, der, den)

Dative indefinite and negative articles (einem, einer, keinem)

Dative personal pronouns (mir, dir, ihm, ihr...)

Dative verbs (helfen, danken, gefallen, schmecken)

Dative prepositions (aus, bei, mit, nach...)

Accusative prepositions (für, ohne, gegen)

Two-way prepositions for location (in, an, auf...)

Informal singular imperative (mach, komm)

Plural and formal imperative (macht, machen Sie)

Coordinating conjunctions (und, oder, aber, denn)

Simple past of sein and haben (war, hatte)

The perfect tense: regular verbs (gemacht, gespielt)

Past tense: irregular verbs (ge-...-en)

The perfect tense: mixed verbs (gebracht, gekannt)

The perfect tense with sein (ist gegangen)

The perfect tense: separable verbs (eingekauft)

The perfect tense: inseparable and -ieren verbs (besucht, studiert)

Informal singular commands (mach, lern)

Numbers 13 to 20 (dreizehn to zwanzig)

Counting by tens to 100 (dreißig, vierzig)

Telling time (Uhr, halb, Viertel, vor, nach)

Numbers 21 to 99 (einundzwanzig, zweiunddreißig)

Greetings and farewells

Thank you, sorry and good wishes

Everyday replies

Numbers 100 to 1,000,000 (hundert, tausend...)

Becoming and getting (werden)

The impersonal pronoun (man)

Indefinite pronouns (jemand, niemand...)

Time sequence prepositions (vor, nach, bei)

Time span prepositions (von... bis, seit, für)

Adverbs of sequence (zuerst, dann, danach)

Two-way prepositions for direction (in, auf, an...)

Directional adverbs (hin, her)

Placement verbs (setzen, stellen, legen)

Months of the year (Januar, Februar)

The four seasons (Frühling, Sommer)

Time prepositions and indefinite pronouns (an, in, um)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 19th (am ersten)

Ordinals 20th and beyond (-ste, -sten)

Placement vs. location verbs (stellen vs. stehen)

Accusative reflexive pronouns (mich, dich, sich)

Accusative reflexive verbs (sich freuen)

Dative reflexive pronouns (mir, dir, sich)

Dative reflexive verbs (sich etwas merken)

Ordinal numbers 11th to 19th (-te)

Temporal prepositions (an, in, um)

Double objects with nouns

Double objects with pronouns

The modal verb for advice (sollen)

Simple past of modal verbs (musste, wollte...)

Simple past of common irregulars (wurde, wusste, es gab)

Adverbial connectors of consequence (deshalb, darum...)

Subordinate clauses for statements (dass)

Question	Answer
the traveler	der Reisende
the embassy	die Botschaft
The traveler must wait a long time in the embassy.	Der Reisende muss lange in der Botschaft warten.
the waiting person	der Wartende
the counter	der Schalter
The longer the person waiting stands at the counter, the angrier he gets.	Je länger der Wartende am Schalter steht, desto wütender wird er.
the adult	der Erwachsene
to apply for	beantragen
The adult would like to apply for a visa.	Der Erwachsene möchte ein Visum beantragen.
the trainee	der Auszubildende
the employee	der Angestellte
the application	der Antrag
The trainee helps the employee with the application.	Der Auszubildende hilft dem Angestellten mit dem Antrag.
the acquaintance	der Bekannte
My acquaintance had to go to the embassy yesterday.	Mein Bekannter musste gestern zur Botschaft gehen.
The traveler is waiting for the counter to open.	Der Reisende wartet darauf, dass der Schalter öffnet.
The employee says that we must apply for the passport.	Der Angestellte sagt, dass wir den Pass beantragen müssen.
Are all the people waiting here adults?	Sind alle Wartenden hier Erwachsene?
The trainee is copying the application for the traveler.	Der Auszubildende kopiert den Antrag für den Reisenden.
Ever since the acquaintance has been in the embassy, he has been nervous.	Seitdem der Bekannte in der Botschaft ist, ist er nervös.
the deed, the act	die Tat
That was a good deed.	Das war eine gute Tat.
Indeed, he is right.	In der Tat hat er recht.

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