Breakdown of Das ist eine gefährliche Substanz.
sein
to be
ein
a, an (eine)
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
gefährlich
dangerous
die Substanz
the substance
Questions & Answers about Das ist eine gefährliche Substanz.
Why do we use the neuter pronoun Das to start the sentence, even though Substanz is feminine?
When introducing or identifying something with the verb sein (to be), German uses the invariant neuter pronoun das (or dies), regardless of the gender or number of the noun that follows. You do not change it to die just because Substanz is feminine.
Why does gefährliche end in -e here?
We are using the mixed adjective declension here because of the indefinite article eine. Since eine already clearly marks the noun as feminine nominative, the adjective only needs the weak ending -e.
Is there a reliable way to guess the gender of a word like Substanz?
Yes! Nouns ending in the suffixes -anz and -enz are almost always feminine in German. These are typically loanwords from Latin or French, such as die Distanz (distance) or die Tendenz (tendency).
How would I refer back to this substance to say 'I am working with this' using the proximate pronominal adverbs from this lesson?
You would use hiermit (with this). For example: Ich arbeite hiermit. Because a substance is an inanimate object, German prefers combining hier- with the preposition (forming hiermit) rather than using a preposition and a demonstrative pronoun like mit dieser.
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