Breakdown of Ein Fuchs ist nicht so gefährlich wie ein Wolf.
sein
to be
ein
a, an (eine)
nicht
not
so
so, such (intensifier)
gefährlich
dangerous
wie
as (in comparisons)
der Fuchs
the fox
der Wolf
the wolf
Questions & Answers about Ein Fuchs ist nicht so gefährlich wie ein Wolf.
Why do we use so ... wie here instead of als?
We use so ... wie for comparisons of equality, meaning when we talk about whether things are at the exact same level. In English, this is "as ... as". You only use als (than) if you are saying something is more or less than something else, like if the fox were more dangerous (gefährlicher als).
Where does the word nicht belong in a comparison like this?
To say two things are not equal, you simply put nicht right before the so. The phrase nicht so gefährlich wie directly translates the English structure "not as dangerous as".
Why is the second animal ein Wolf (nominative case) instead of einen Wolf (accusative)?
After the comparison words wie (as) and als (than), the noun takes the same case as the thing it is being compared to. Because Ein Fuchs is the subject of the sentence (nominative case), ein Wolf must also be in the nominative case.
Why doesn't the adjective gefährlich have an ending here?
When an adjective comes after a form of the verb sein (to be) and describes the subject, it never takes any grammatical endings. It stays in its base dictionary form, so we just use gefährlich.
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