Breakdown of Die Macht des starken Staates schützt die Gesellschaft.
stark
strong
schützen
to protect
die Macht
the power
der Staat
the state (political)
Questions & Answers about Die Macht des starken Staates schützt die Gesellschaft.
Why does the adjective starken end in -en instead of -es?
In the genitive case, after a definite article like des, the adjective always takes an -en ending. Because the article des already clearly shows that the noun is masculine genitive, the adjective just takes the standard weak ending -en. It is a common trap to try to match the -es ending of the noun!
Why is the noun written as Staates instead of just Staats?
For masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive case, you add either -s or -es. A helpful rule of thumb is that short, one-syllable nouns like Staat usually take -es because it makes them easier to pronounce. While des Staats is technically possible, des Staates sounds much better and is the standard form.
How can you tell that die Gesellschaft is in the accusative case?
You can figure it out from its job in the sentence. Die Macht is the subject doing the protecting, so it is in the nominative case. Die Gesellschaft is the direct object receiving the protection, which puts it in the accusative case. Since feminine nouns use die for both nominative and accusative, they look exactly the same, so you have to rely on the sentence structure.
Is die Macht related to the verb machen?