Word
Der Sommer in der Wüste ist länger als am Meer.
Meaning
The summer in the desert is longer than by the sea.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der Sommer in der Wüste ist länger als am Meer.
sein
to be
in
in
lang
long
der Sommer
the summer
Questions & Answers about Der Sommer in der Wüste ist länger als am Meer.
Why does the word for 'longer' have an umlaut (länger) when the basic word for 'long' is lang?
Many short, one-syllable German adjectives get an umlaut over their vowel when they change to the comparative form. Since lang has an 'a', it changes to 'ä', making it länger. This is the exact same rule that makes alt become älter and groß become größer.
Why do we use als here instead of wie to mean 'than'?
When you are saying one thing is more or less than another (using a comparative word like länger), you always use als. You only use wie when two things are equal, like in so lang wie (meaning 'as long as').
If the word for desert is feminine (die Wüste), why does the sentence say in der Wüste?
The preposition in is a two-way preposition. Because the summer is happening in a fixed place (it is not moving to a new destination), we use the dative case to show location. In the dative case, the feminine article die changes to der.
What does am stand for in am Meer?