Questions & Answers about Das war eine dumme Frage.
Since this lesson is about -weise words, what would happen if I used dummerweise instead of dumme?
If you said Das war dummerweise eine Frage, you change the meaning completely! Dumme is an adjective describing the question itself ('a stupid question'). Dummerweise is an adverb expressing your attitude about the whole situation, meaning 'stupidly' or 'unfortunately' (as in, 'Unfortunately, that was a question').
Frage is a feminine noun. Why does the sentence start with the neuter word Das instead of Die?
When das is used as a standalone pointer to mean 'that' or 'this' in a general sense (like 'That was a...'), it stays fixed as das. It doesn't change to match the gender of the noun it points to. You would only use die if it were placed directly before the noun, as in Die dumme Frage...
Why is the ending on dumm just -e here?
Because Frage is a feminine noun in the nominative (subject) case, and it follows the indefinite article eine. When an adjective comes between eine and a feminine noun in the nominative, it always takes an -e ending.
If I change the sentence to 'The question was stupid', does the adjective still get an -e?
No! If you write Die Frage war dumm, the adjective dumm gets no ending at all. In German, adjectives only get those special endings when they are placed directly before the noun they describe.
Learn Das war eine dumme Frage 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