Breakdown of Der Kugelschreiber schreibt gut.
gut
good / well
schreiben
to write
der Kugelschreiber
the ballpoint pen
Questions & Answers about Der Kugelschreiber schreibt gut.
Why is it der Kugelschreiber and not den Kugelschreiber here?
Even though you are learning about the accusative case, der Kugelschreiber is in the nominative case here. That is because the pen is the subject of the sentence—it is the thing doing the writing! We only use the accusative den for the direct object, which is the thing receiving the action.
Kugelschreiber is a really long word! Is there an easier way to say it?
Yes! German speakers often shorten it to just der Kuli. If you break down the long word, it actually makes perfect sense: die Kugel means the ball, and der Schreiber means the writer. So it literally translates to ball-writer!
The English translation says 'writes well', but doesn't gut mean 'good'?
In English, we change 'good' to 'well' when describing an action, but in German, you do not need to change the word. gut can mean both 'good' and 'well', depending on how it is used in the sentence. Here, it simply describes how the pen writes.
Why does the verb end in a 't' (schreibt)?
schreibt is the form of the verb schreiben (to write) used for 'he', 'she', or 'it'. Since der Kugelschreiber is a singular noun acting like an 'it', we drop the -en ending from schreiben and add a -t.
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