Breakdown of Der Tisch und der Stuhl sind schön.
sein
to be
und
and
schön
beautiful
der Tisch
the table
der Stuhl
the chair
Questions & Answers about Der Tisch und der Stuhl sind schön.
Since Tisch and Stuhl are both singular nouns, why does the sentence use the plural verb sind?
Because der Tisch and der Stuhl are joined by und (and), together they create a plural subject (they). Just like in English where we say 'The table and the chair are', German uses the plural verb sind instead of the singular ist.
How would I make der Tisch and der Stuhl plural if I wanted to talk about multiple tables and chairs?
The plural of der Tisch is die Tische, and the plural of der Stuhl is die Stühle. Notice that whenever you make a noun plural in German, the definite article always becomes die, regardless of whether the noun was masculine, feminine, or neuter in the singular.
Since the subject of the sentence is plural, why doesn't the adjective schön have a plural ending?
In German, adjectives only change their endings when they are placed right before a noun (like die schönen Tische). When an adjective comes after a verb like sind (are) to describe the subject, it always stays in its basic dictionary form.
Why do both Tisch and Stuhl use the article der here?
Both of these nouns happen to be masculine. Because they are the subject of the sentence (the things that 'are' beautiful), they are in the nominative case. The masculine nominative article for 'the' is der.
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