Dein Lächeln ist heller als das Licht des Mondes.

to be

Breakdown of Dein Lächeln ist heller als das Licht des Mondes.

• das Licht: the light
• hell: bright
• dein: your

Questions & Answers about Dein Lächeln ist heller als das Licht des Mondes.

Why is Lächeln capitalized?

In German, every noun is written with a capital letter. Lächeln (“smile”) is a noun (formed from the verb lächeln), so it gets a capital L no matter where it appears in the sentence.

What does dein mean, and why not deine?

dein is the possessive pronoun for “your.” In German, possessive pronouns (like adjectives) must match the gender, number, and case of the noun they modify. Lächeln is a neuter noun in the nominative singular, so the correct form is dein Lächeln. If the noun were feminine (e.g. die Blume), you’d use deine Blume.

Why is the verb ist placed right after Dein Lächeln instead of at the end?

In a main clause, German follows the “verb-second” rule: the finite (conjugated) verb must occupy the second position. Here, the first position is taken by the subject Dein Lächeln, so ist comes directly after.

How do you form the comparative heller als?

To form a comparative in German, you add -er to the adjective stem and then use als to introduce the thing you’re comparing to.
• hell → heller
• heller + als → heller als (“brighter than”)