Der Verkaufserlös ist groß.

Because Verkaufserlös is a masculine singular noun, and here it is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case. The nominative masculine article is der.

So:

• der Verkaufserlös = the sale proceeds / the proceeds from the sale

It is a compound noun, which is very common in German. It is made up of:

• Verkauf = sale
• Erlös = proceeds, revenue, amount realized

German often combines nouns into one longer noun instead of using a phrase with of or from like English does. So instead of something like the proceeds from the sale, German can simply say der Verkaufserlös.

The last part of a compound noun usually determines its grammatical gender and plural form. Here the last part is Erlös, which is masculine, so Verkaufserlös is also masculine.

Because groß is a predicate adjective here. In German, adjectives used after verbs like sein, werden, and bleiben do not take endings.

So:

• Der Verkaufserlös ist groß. = correct
• Der große Verkaufserlös = also correct, but here the adjective comes before the noun, so it needs an ending

Compare:

• der große Verkaufserlös = the large sale proceeds
• Der Verkaufserlös ist groß. = the sale proceeds are large

Because German main clauses usually follow the verb-second rule. The finite verb comes in the second position.

In this sentence:

• Der Verkaufserlös = first position
• ist = second position
• groß = rest of the sentence

This is one of the most important basic word-order rules in German.

Because all nouns are capitalized in German, not just proper names.

So in this sentence:

• Verkaufserlös is capitalized because it is a noun
• groß is not capitalized because it is an adjective

This is a standard feature of written German.

It is singular here.

You can tell because:

• it uses der, which is singular
• the verb is ist, which is singular

The plural would be:

• die Verkaufserlöse
• Die Verkaufserlöse sind groß.

It is grammatical, but in business or financial contexts, German often prefers hoch rather than groß when talking about amounts, revenues, profits, or proceeds.

So:

• Der Verkaufserlös ist groß. = understandable and correct
• Der Verkaufserlös ist hoch. = often more idiomatic in a financial context

A learner should know that groß means big/large, but German sometimes uses different adjectives where English might still just use big.

ß is called Eszett or scharfes S. It represents an s sound, not a z sound.

So groß is pronounced roughly like grohs.

A useful spelling note:

• groß = standard German spelling
• In Switzerland, people usually write gross instead of groß

Yes. German often allows both a compact compound noun and a longer phrase.

For example:

• Der Erlös aus dem Verkauf ist groß.

That means essentially the same thing, but it is less compact than Der Verkaufserlös ist groß.

The compound noun version is very typical of German, especially in formal, business, or written language.

The pattern is:

• Subject + verb + adjective

More specifically:

• Der Verkaufserlös = subject
• ist = linking verb
• groß = predicate adjective

This is similar to English sentences like:

• The house is big.
• The problem is serious.

So the structure is quite straightforward once you know that the adjective after sein does not change its form.