Breakdown of Er kaufte mehrere dicke Sachbücher.
er
he
kaufen
to buy
mehrere
several
dick
thick / fat
das Sachbuch
the non-fiction book
Questions & Answers about Er kaufte mehrere dicke Sachbücher.
Why do both mehrere and dicke end in -e instead of -en?
This is the main rule for this lesson! Words for indefinite quantities like mehrere, viele, and einige do not count as articles; they act like regular adjectives. Since there is no definite article (like die) in front of them to show the case, both words take the strong plural ending for the accusative case, which is -e. If you used alle (all) instead, it would act as an article, forcing the following adjective to take the weak ending -en (for example, alle dicken Sachbücher).
What case is the phrase mehrere dicke Sachbücher in?
It is in the accusative case because the books are the direct object of the sentence (they are the things being bought). In the plural, the strong accusative adjective endings are identical to the nominative endings, which is why the adjectives get an -e ending here.
Why does the sentence use kaufte instead of hat gekauft?
The word kaufte is the simple past (Präteritum) of kaufen. While you will usually hear the conversational past (Er hat gekauft) in everyday spoken German, the simple past is the standard tense for written narratives, such as stories, news articles, or novels. At the B1 level, you will see it frequently in reading texts.
How is the word Sachbücher formed?
It is a compound noun made of die Sache (thing, matter, subject) and das Buch (book). Together, a Sachbuch is a factual or non-fiction book. In German compound nouns, the final word determines the gender and the plural form. Since the plural of das Buch is die Bücher, the plural here is die Sachbücher.
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