Der Schmuck ist teuer.

Schmuck is a masculine noun in German, so its basic article is der.

• der Schmuck = the jewelry

In this sentence, der Schmuck is also the subject, so it is in the nominative case, which keeps the article as der.

It is singular in grammar, but in meaning it often works like a collective or mass noun.

So der Schmuck can refer to jewelry in general, not just one single item. It works a lot like English jewelry, which is also usually treated as uncountable.

If you want to talk about individual pieces, German often uses expressions like:

• ein Schmuckstück = a piece of jewelry
• Schmuckstücke = pieces of jewelry

Ist is the third-person singular form of the verb sein = to be.

The subject is der Schmuck, which is grammatically singular, so German uses:

• ich bin
• du bist
• er / sie / es ist

That is why the sentence has ist.

Because teuer comes after the verb ist, it is being used as a predicate adjective. In German, predicate adjectives usually do not take endings.

So:

• Der Schmuck ist teuer. = correct

But when the adjective comes before a noun, it usually does take an ending:

• der teure Schmuck = the expensive jewelry

So compare:

• Der Schmuck ist teuer.
• der teure Schmuck

The word order is very typical for a simple German statement:

• Der Schmuck = subject
• ist = verb
• teuer = complement/adjective

So the pattern is:

• Subject + verb + complement

German main clauses normally put the finite verb in second position, and that is exactly what happens here.

In German, all nouns are capitalized.

So:

• der Schmuck
• das Haus
• die Frau

This is one of the most noticeable spelling differences between German and English.

A simple approximation is:

• Schmuck ≈ shmook, but with a shorter u sound
• teuer ≈ TOY-er or TOY-uh, depending on accent

A few pronunciation notes:

• sch in German sounds like English sh
• ck is a hard k
• eu usually sounds like oy
• the r in teuer may be weak or barely heard in some accents

Usually, der Schmuck ist teuer sounds more natural if you mean the jewelry or jewelry in a general, known sense.

You may sometimes see a noun without an article in German, but that depends on the context. With Schmuck, using der in a basic sentence like this is the safest and most natural choice for learners.

So for this sentence, stick with:

• Der Schmuck ist teuer.

You can negate it with nicht:

• Der Schmuck ist nicht teuer. = The jewelry is not expensive.

Here, nicht comes before the adjective teuer.

In a yes/no question, German usually puts the verb first:

• Ist der Schmuck teuer? = Is the jewelry expensive?

This is a very common pattern:

• Ist
  • subject + adjective?

In standard German, Schmuck means jewelry or decoration. It is not normally an insult in this sentence.

English schmuck as an insult comes through Yiddish, not from the ordinary everyday German use of Schmuck here.

So in Der Schmuck ist teuer, the meaning is simply about jewelry.