Breakdown of Ein Krokodil ist gefährlicher als eine Schlange.
sein
to be
ein
a, an (eine)
gefährlich
dangerous
als
than
das Krokodil
the crocodile
die Schlange
the snake
Questions & Answers about Ein Krokodil ist gefährlicher als eine Schlange.
Why do we use als in this sentence instead of wie?
We use als (than) because the sentence compares two unequal things: one is more dangerous than the other. If the animals were exactly equally dangerous, we would use so ... wie (as ... as), for example: so gefährlich wie eine Schlange.
How is the word gefährlicher formed?
To say 'more dangerous', German simply takes the base adjective gefährlich (dangerous) and adds the ending -er. Unlike English, which often uses the word 'more' for longer adjectives, German almost always just adds the -er ending, no matter how long the word is.
Why is it eine Schlange and not in another case like the accusative?
The word als connects two things that are in the exact same case. Because the first animal, Ein Krokodil, is the subject of the sentence (nominative case), the second animal, eine Schlange, must also be in the nominative case.
Does the adjective gefährlich change its vowels when adding the -er ending?
No. While many short, one-syllable German adjectives add an umlaut when comparing (like alt becoming älter), longer adjectives ending in -lich never add a new umlaut. Plus, gefährlich already has an umlaut on the ä!
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