Breakdown of Gutes Parfüm kostet viel Geld.
gut
good / well
das Geld
the money
viel
much / a lot
kosten
to cost
das Parfüm
the perfume
Questions & Answers about Gutes Parfüm kostet viel Geld.
Why is it Gutes Parfüm and not just Gute Parfüm?
Because Parfüm is a neuter noun (das Parfüm) and it is the subject of the sentence (nominative case). Since there is no article like das or ein before it, the adjective gut has to show the gender by taking the strong ending -es.
Does the ending on Gutes mean I can always guess the gender of a noun if there is no article?
Yes! When there is no article, the adjective does the heavy lifting. The -es on Gutes tells you right away that Parfüm is neuter. If it were a masculine noun like Kaffee, it would be Guter Kaffee, and for a feminine noun like Schokolade, it would be Gute Schokolade.
Why doesn't viel have an ending here? Shouldn't it be vieles Geld?
The words viel (much) and wenig (little) are special. When they are used before uncountable singular nouns like Geld or Zeit (time), they usually do not take any adjective endings.
Why does kostet have an extra e before the t?
The stem of the verb kosten ends in a t (kost-). To make it pronounceable when adding the third-person singular -t ending, we insert an extra -e-, making it kostet. You have seen this rule before with verbs like arbeiten (es arbeitet).
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