Questions & Answers about Es war ein seltsamer Traum.
Can I use the suffix -haft with Traum to make an adjective, like traumhaft?
Yes, but it changes the meaning! Traumhaft means 'dreamlike', 'fantastic', or 'gorgeous' (like a beautiful dream). If you said Es war ein traumhafter Urlaub (It was a fantastic vacation), that works beautifully. However, saying ein traumhafter Traum sounds redundant and slightly poetic, rather than meaning 'a strange dream'.
Could we use the suffix -mäßig and say traummäßig instead?
Not really. The suffix -mäßig usually means 'in terms of' or 'comparable to' and is used heavily in colloquial German to create new words on the fly (like wettermäßig for 'weather-wise'). While traumhaft is an established word meaning 'fantastic', traummäßig isn't standard. If someone did say it colloquially, it would simply mean 'regarding the dream' or 'dream-wise'.
Since this lesson is about adjective suffixes, what is the suffix in seltsam?
The suffix -sam is another way to derive adjectives, usually meaning 'characterized by' or 'tending to'. It comes from the root word selten (rare). So seltsam literally evolved from 'tending to be rare', which gives us its modern meaning: 'strange' or 'odd'. Unlike -haft or -mäßig, -sam isn't generally used to create brand new words on the fly today.
Why is there an -er on the end of seltsamer?
This is a quick refresher on mixed adjective inflection. Traum is a masculine noun (der Traum) in the nominative case. Because the indefinite article ein doesn't have an ending here to clearly show the masculine gender, the adjective seltsam has to do the heavy lifting. It takes the strong -er ending, becoming seltsamer.
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