Breakdown of Wir brauchen mehr Raum für die Kinder.
das Kind
the child
wir
we
brauchen
to need
für
for
mehr
more
der Raum
the room, the space
Questions & Answers about Wir brauchen mehr Raum für die Kinder.
Why do we use Raum here instead of Platz or Zimmer?
Raum translates to the general concept of physical space, and can also mean a specific room in a public building. Zimmer is strictly a lived-in room in a house or apartment. Platz is used more for available room (like an empty seat or enough space in a suitcase). Here, mehr Raum means they need a larger physical area for the kids.
Does the word mehr change its ending depending on the noun it describes?
No, mehr is an exception. Unlike most adjectives in German, it does not get any endings added to it, no matter the gender, case, or plural form of the noun that follows it. You simply say mehr Raum.
Why is it die Kinder and not den Kindern?
The preposition für always forces the noun that follows it to be in the accusative case. For plural nouns in the accusative case, the word for the is die. If we had used a dative preposition like mit, it would change to the dative plural form mit den Kindern.
Since brauchen takes a direct object, is Raum in the accusative case?
Yes, the verb brauchen always requires a direct object in the accusative case. If we said we need the space, it would be Wir brauchen den Raum, because masculine nouns change their word for the to den in the accusative. However, in this sentence, we just have the word mehr, which never takes endings, and the noun Raum itself does not change its spelling.
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