Der Privatverkauf endet heute.

The private sale ends today.

Breakdown of Der Privatverkauf endet heute.

• heute: today
• enden: to end
• der Privatverkauf: the private sale

Questions & Answers about Der Privatverkauf endet heute.

Why is it der Privatverkauf and not die or das?

Because Privatverkauf is a masculine noun in German, so it takes der in the nominative singular.

In this sentence, der Privatverkauf is the subject, so the nominative article is used:

• der = masculine
• die = feminine
• das = neuter

You usually have to learn the gender together with each noun:

• der Privatverkauf
• not just Privatverkauf

What does Privatverkauf literally mean?

It is a compound noun:

• privat = private
• Verkauf = sale

So Privatverkauf literally means private sale.

German often combines words into one longer noun. English usually writes these as separate words more often, but German commonly joins them:

• Privatverkauf = private sale
• Autoverkauf = car sale
• Sommerferien = summer holidays

Why is Privatverkauf capitalized?

Because all nouns are capitalized in German.

So in this sentence:

• Der = article, not capitalized because it is at the start only
• Privatverkauf = noun, so it must be capitalized
• endet = verb, not capitalized
• heute = adverb, not capitalized

This is one of the most noticeable differences from English.