Breakdown of Frischer Lavendel macht mich glücklich.
machen
to make, to do
glücklich
happy
mich
me
frisch
fresh
Questions & Answers about Frischer Lavendel macht mich glücklich.
Why does frisch have the ending -er here?
Because there is no article (like der or ein) before the noun, the adjective has to do the heavy lifting to show the gender and case. Lavendel is a masculine noun (der Lavendel) and it is the subject of the sentence (nominative case). Therefore, frisch takes the strong masculine nominative ending -er, becoming frischer.
What if I wanted to say "The fresh lavender"? How would the adjective change?
If you add the word "the", you would say Der frische Lavendel. Because the article der clearly shows that the noun is masculine and nominative, the adjective can relax and just take the weak ending -e. We only need the strong -er ending when the article is missing entirely!
Why doesn't glücklich get an ending like frischer?
In German, adjectives only take endings when they come directly before the noun they describe (like frischer Lavendel). Here, glücklich comes later in the sentence and doesn't sit right in front of a noun. Adjectives used this way always stay in their basic, uninflected dictionary form.
Why do we use mich instead of mir?
The verb machen takes a direct object, which requires the accusative case. Since the lavender is doing the action (making) directly to you, you are the direct object. mich is the accusative form of I/me, while mir is the dative form (which would be used for indirect objects meaning "to me" or "for me").