Breakdown of Diese Strecke ist schöner, aber langsamer.
sein
to be
schön
beautiful
aber
but
langsam
slow, slowly
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
die Strecke
the route / the distance
Questions & Answers about Diese Strecke ist schöner, aber langsamer.
How do we form the comparative for schön and langsam here?
Just like in English where you add '-er' to make 'slower', German adds -er to the base adjective. So schön (beautiful) becomes schöner (more beautiful), and langsam (slow) becomes langsamer (slower).
Why don't schöner and langsamer get extra endings to match the feminine noun Strecke?
Because they come after the verb ist rather than directly in front of the noun. Adjectives only take gender or case endings when they are placed right before a noun. When they stand alone after a verb like 'is', they only take the basic -er for the comparative, nothing more.
Does schöner get its umlaut (ö) because it's in the comparative form?
No, the base word schön already has an umlaut! While some short, common German adjectives do add an umlaut when they get the -er ending (like alt becoming älter), here you are just keeping the existing one. Notice that langsam doesn't add an umlaut either.
Why is it Diese Strecke with an -e at the end?
Strecke (route or distance) is a feminine noun. The word for 'this' (dies-) has to match the gender of the noun it points to. Since it is the subject of the sentence (nominative case), it takes the feminine ending -e, making it Diese.
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