Word
Das neue Abo gilt ab dem ersten Januar.
Meaning
The new subscription is valid starting January first.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Das neue Abo gilt ab dem ersten Januar.
neu
new
der Januar
January
erste
first (adjective)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
Questions & Answers about Das neue Abo gilt ab dem ersten Januar.
Why is "Januar" preceded by the dative article "dem"?
The preposition ab (starting from) always requires the dative case. Since all months in German, including Januar, are masculine, the dative article is dem.
Why does the word for "first" end in "-en" (ersten)?
In German, ordinal numbers like "first" act like adjectives. Because it comes after the dative article dem, it needs the dative adjective ending, which is always -en.
What verb does gilt come from?
It comes from gelten, which means "to be valid" or "to count". It is an irregular verb that changes its stem vowel from "e" to "i" in the "he/she/it" form, which is why it becomes gilt here.
Is Abo a complete word or an abbreviation?
Abo is the very common short form of das Abonnement (the subscription). Just like the full word, the abbreviation is neuter, which is why it uses Das in this sentence.
Why is the ending on neue just "-e" and not "-es"?