Die Farbe des Stühlchens passt zum Tischchen.
The color of the little chair matches the little table.
Breakdown of Die Farbe des Stühlchens passt zum Tischchen.
passen
to fit
die Farbe
the color
zum
to the (zu + dem)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
das Stühlchen
the little chair
das Tischchen
the little table
Questions & Answers about Die Farbe des Stühlchens passt zum Tischchen.
Why do the masculine nouns Stuhl and Tisch take neuter articles here (des and dem in zum)?
Any noun that ends in the diminutive suffixes -chen or -lein automatically becomes neuter (das). It doesn't matter what the original gender was! That's why we treat both Stühlchen and Tischchen as neuter nouns in this sentence.
Why does Stühlchen have an umlaut when Stuhl doesn't, but Tischchen stays the same?
When you add -chen or -lein to create a diminutive, the vowels a, o, and u in the base word usually get an umlaut (ä, ö, ü). So, Stuhl becomes Stühlchen. The vowel i in Tisch cannot take an umlaut, so the word just becomes Tischchen.
Why is there an extra -s at the end of Stühlchens?
That indicates the genitive case, which shows possession. It translates to "of the little chair." In the genitive case, masculine and neuter nouns add an -s or -es at the end. Since all -chen words are neuter, they will always take that -s in the genitive (des Stühlchens).
Why use zum instead of just zu for "to the little table"?
The verb passen (meaning "to match" or "to go with") is used with the preposition zu, which always triggers the dative case. Since Tischchen is neuter, its dative article is dem. The preposition zu and the article dem contract into the single word zum.
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