Questions & Answers about Sein Wohnzimmer ist groß.
Why is the word for "his" sein here instead of seine?
Possessive words like "his" change their endings based on the gender of the noun they belong to. Wohnzimmer is a neuter noun (das Wohnzimmer). Because it is the subject of the sentence (nominative case), neuter and masculine nouns just take the basic form sein. You would only add an -e to make it seine if the noun were feminine or plural.
Doesn't sein also mean "to be"?
Yes! sein is a very common word in German with two completely different jobs. It is the infinitive verb for "to be" (which is actually where ist comes from), but it is also the possessive word for "his" or "its". You can easily tell them apart by looking at how they are used: here, it's directly in front of a noun, so it must be the possessive word "his".
How do I know the gender of a long word like Wohnzimmer?
Wohnzimmer is a compound noun, made by combining the verb wohnen (to live) and the noun das Zimmer (the room). In German, a compound noun always takes the gender of its last part. Since it is das Zimmer, the whole word is neuter: das Wohnzimmer.
Since Wohnzimmer is neuter, why doesn't the adjective have an ending, like großes?
Because groß (large) is separated from the noun by the verb ist (is). When an adjective comes after the noun to describe it, it's called a predicate adjective. In German, predicate adjectives always stay in their basic dictionary form and never get extra endings. You only add endings when the adjective comes directly before the noun (like in sein großes Wohnzimmer).
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