Breakdown of Der Krieg war im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert.
sein
to be
im
in the (used with months) / in the (contraction of in + dem)
zwanzigste
twentieth
das Jahrhundert
the century
der Krieg
the war
Questions & Answers about Der Krieg war im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert.
How do we form "twentieth" in German?
For numbers from 20 onwards, you add -ste to the base number. This is different from numbers 1-19, which only take -te. So, zwanzig (twenty) becomes zwanzigste (twentieth).
Why does zwanzigsten end in "-n" here?
Ordinal numbers act like adjectives and must take grammatical endings. Because it follows im (which contains the dative article dem), it needs the weak adjective ending -en.
Why do we use im instead of just in for "in the 20th century"?
Time phrases using in (like centuries, months, or seasons) require the dative case. Jahrhundert is a neuter noun, so its dative article is dem. The words in and dem combine into the short word im.
How do you know the gender of a compound noun like Jahrhundert?
The gender of a compound noun is always determined by its final word. It combines das Jahr (the year) and das Hundert (the hundred), so the combined word takes the neuter gender of the final part.
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