Breakdown of Wer hat einen längeren Umhang und eine dunklere Maske?
ein
a, an (eine)
und
and
haben
to have
wer
who
dunkel
dark
lang
long
der Umhang
the cape
die Maske
the mask
Questions & Answers about Wer hat einen längeren Umhang und eine dunklere Maske?
Why is the word längeren and not just länger?
Länger is the comparative form of lang (long). Because it comes directly in front of the noun Umhang, it acts as an attributive adjective and needs a declension ending. The ending is -en because Umhang is a masculine noun in the accusative case.
Why do we use the ending -en for längeren but just -e for dunklere?
Both phrases are the direct objects of hat (has), meaning they are both in the accusative case. However, Umhang (cape) is masculine, so its adjective takes the masculine accusative ending -en after einen. Maske (mask) is feminine, so its adjective takes the feminine accusative ending -e after eine.
What happened to the 'e' in dunkel to make it dunklere?
The base adjective is dunkel (dark). When an adjective ends in -el or -er, we drop that unaccented 'e' before adding the comparative -er ending, making it dunkler. After that, we add the normal feminine adjective ending -e to match eine Maske, resulting in dunklere.
Why does lang change to länger with an umlaut (ä)?
Many short, one-syllable adjectives with the vowels a, o, or u get an umlaut when forming their comparative and superlative versions. Other common examples include alt becoming älter (older) and groß becoming größer (bigger).
Learn Wer hat einen längeren Umhang und eine dunklere Maske 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