Breakdown of Der Blick auf das Meer ist schön.
sein
to be
auf
on
der Blick
the view
schön
beautiful
das Meer
the sea
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Questions & Answers about Der Blick auf das Meer ist schön.
Why is Blick capitalized?
In German all nouns are capitalized by orthographic rule. That’s why Blick (meaning “view” or “glance”) is always written with an uppercase B.
Why is the article der used before Blick?
Blick is a masculine noun in German. In the nominative singular you use the definite article der for masculine nouns.
Why is Meer neuter, and why does it take das?
German assigns one of three grammatical genders to every noun. Meer (sea) is neuter, so its definite article in both the nominative and accusative singular is das.
Why does the phrase auf das Meer use the accusative case (das) instead of the dative (dem)?
auf is a Wechselpräposition (two‑way preposition). When it indicates direction or the target of an action (here, the target of your gaze), it takes the accusative. To express a static location (“on the sea”), you would use the dative (auf dem Meer), but with Blick auf you are looking onto the sea, so it’s accusative.
What is the function of auf das Meer in this sentence?
It’s a prepositional phrase acting as a complement to Blick, specifying what you are looking at. Grammatically it’s part of the noun phrase Der Blick auf das Meer, not a direct object of the main clause.
Why doesn’t schön have any ending (for example, schöne)?
Here schön is used predicatively with the verb ist (to be). Predicative adjectives in German remain uninflected. If you used schön attributively (directly before a noun), it would need an ending (e.g. der schöne Blick).
How would you say the beautiful view of the sea with beautiful as an attributive adjective?
You’d say Der schöne Blick auf das Meer. Here schöne gets the nominative masculine singular ending -e following the definite article der.
Why is the word order Der Blick auf das Meer ist schön and not inverted like a question?
In a German main clause the finite verb normally occupies the second position (Verb‑zweite Stellung). This is a statement, so the subject Der Blick auf das Meer is first, the verb ist is second, and the adjective predicate schön comes at the end. If you turn it into a yes/no question, you invert subject and verb (“Ist der Blick auf das Meer schön?”).