Breakdown of Viele kleine Verlage besuchen die Buchmesse.
klein
small
viel
much / a lot
besuchen
to visit
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Verlag
the publisher
die Buchmesse
the book fair
Questions & Answers about Viele kleine Verlage besuchen die Buchmesse.
Why is it kleine and not kleinen? Don't plural adjectives usually end in -en?
They do when they come after a definite article (like die). However, words like viele, einige, and mehrere don't act like articles; they act like normal adjectives. Because there is no article to show the case, both viele and kleine take the strong plural ending for the nominative case, which is -e.
How would the adjective change if we used alle instead of viele?
You would say Alle kleinen Verlage. This is the big difference in your current lesson: unlike viele, the words alle (all) and beide (both) act just like definite articles. After an article, the following adjective takes the weak plural ending, which is always -en.
What is the singular form of Verlage?
The singular is der Verlag (the publisher or publishing house). To make it plural, you simply add an -e to get die Verlage.
How do I figure out the gender of a long noun like Buchmesse?
Compound nouns always take the gender of their final word. Buchmesse combines das Buch (the book) and die Messe (the trade fair or exhibition). Since it is die Messe, the whole word is feminine. Here it is the direct object (accusative case), but the feminine article die looks the exact same in both the nominative and accusative.
Learn Viele kleine Verlage besuchen die Buchmesse and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free