Breakdown of Der Besucher sieht mehrere bekannte Schriftsteller.
sehen
to see
mehrere
several
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
bekannt
known
der Besucher
the visitor
der Schriftsteller
the writer
Questions & Answers about Der Besucher sieht mehrere bekannte Schriftsteller.
Why does the adjective bekannte end in -e instead of the usual plural -en?
Usually, after a plural article like die or keine, adjectives get the weak ending -en. However, words like mehrere (several) act like regular adjectives themselves. Because there is no definite article in front of them, both mehrere and bekannte take the strong accusative plural ending, which is -e.
What would happen to the adjective if we used alle (all) instead of mehrere (several) in this sentence?
If we used alle, the sentence would be: Der Besucher sieht alle bekannten Schriftsteller. Unlike mehrere, the word alle acts like a definite article in the plural, so it forces the following adjective to take the weak plural ending -en.
Does this strong -e ending rule also apply to words like viele and einige?
Yes! The words viele (many), einige (some), and mehrere (several) all behave the exact same way. If you swapped them into this sentence, you would say viele bekannte Schriftsteller or einige bekannte Schriftsteller.
How do we know Schriftsteller is plural here? Isn't the singular also Schriftsteller?
That is right, masculine nouns ending in -er usually do not change their spelling in the plural. We know it is plural here because of the context word mehrere (several), and because the words mehrere and bekannte have the plural accusative -e ending. If it were singular, it would be einen bekannten Schriftsteller.
Learn Der Besucher sieht mehrere bekannte Schriftsteller 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