Breakdown of Gehen Sie an den Strand, er ist größer als der Park!
sein
to be
er
he
groß
big / tall
Sie
you (formal)
der Park
the park
gehen
to go
an
at, on (vertical) / to (addressee) / of (in quantity/stock expressions)
als
than
der Strand
the beach
Questions & Answers about Gehen Sie an den Strand, er ist größer als der Park!
Why does groß change to größer with an umlaut?
Many short, one-syllable adjectives in German add an umlaut (two dots) over their vowel when forming the comparative. Since the comparative adds -er to the end, groß (big) becomes größer (bigger). Other examples you will see are alt becoming älter and kalt becoming kälter.
Why does the second part of the sentence use er to mean "it"?
In German, pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace. Since the sentence is referring back to "the beach", which is a masculine noun (der Strand), we must use the masculine pronoun er. If the noun were neuter, we would use es.
Why do we say an den Strand instead of am Strand?
The preposition an is a "two-way" preposition. Since this sentence is a command to move towards a destination ("Go to the beach"), we use the accusative case (den Strand). If you were already relaxing there with no change of location, you would use the dative case (am Strand).
Is als the word we always use for "than"?
Yes! When you use a comparative adjective like größer (bigger) to show two things are different, you connect them with als (than). If they were the exact same size, you would use wie (as), for example: so groß wie (as big as).
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