Breakdown of Jemand hat die Frankfurter Wurst gegessen.
haben
to have
essen
to eat
jemand
someone
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
die Wurst
the sausage
Frankfurter
of Frankfurt
Questions & Answers about Jemand hat die Frankfurter Wurst gegessen.
Why doesn't Frankfurter take the feminine adjective ending -e after die?
Frankfurter is a geographic adjective created by adding -er to a city name. Adjectives formed this way are indeclinable, which means they never change their ending to match gender, case, or number.
Why is Frankfurter capitalized if it is acting as an adjective describing the noun Wurst?
In German, regular adjectives are lowercased, but adjectives derived from city and region names that end in -er are a special exception. They are always capitalized, no matter where they appear in a sentence.
Does the pronoun jemand ever take an ending?
Yes, but not here. Because jemand (someone) is the subject of this sentence, it is in the nominative case and takes no ending. In the accusative and dative cases, it takes endings (jemanden, jemandem), though colloquial German often drops them.
Can Frankfurter also be used as a standalone noun?
Yes! If you drop the word Wurst, you can just say die Frankfurter to mean the sausage. Because the word acts as both a noun and an indeclinable adjective, it looks exactly the same either way.
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