Breakdown of Danke schön, der Kaffee ist sehr gut.
sein
to be
sehr
very
gut
good / well
der Kaffee
the coffee
Questions & Answers about Danke schön, der Kaffee ist sehr gut.
Doesn't schön mean "beautiful"? Why is it used here with Danke?
You are right, schön usually means "beautiful" or "nice." However, in the set phrase Danke schön, it acts as an intensifier. Together, the phrase simply means "Thank you very much."
Why is the word Kaffee capitalized?
In German, all nouns (words for people, places, things, or concepts) are always capitalized, no matter where they appear in a sentence. Since Kaffee (coffee) is a thing, it gets a capital letter!
Why is it der Kaffee and not das Kaffee or die Kaffee?
Every noun in German has a grammatical gender: masculine (der), feminine (die), or neuter (das). Kaffee happens to be a masculine word, so it uses der. There is rarely a logical reason why a word has a certain gender, so it is always best to memorize the word and its article together as der Kaffee!
Could I just say Danke instead of Danke schön?
Yes, absolutely! Danke simply means "Thank you" or "Thanks" and is perfectly fine to use on its own. Adding schön just makes it a bit more polite and enthusiastic, similar to saying "Thank you very much" instead of just "Thanks."