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Questions & Answers about Der Apfel ist süß.
Why is Apfel capitalized?
In German, every noun is always capitalized, no matter where it appears in the sentence.
Why is the article der used instead of die or das?
Apfel is a masculine noun in German, so it takes the masculine definite article der in the nominative case.
Why is it der Apfel (definite) rather than ein Apfel (indefinite)?
Using der makes it clear you’re referring to a specific apple (or apples in general as a category). If you wanted to say “An apple is sweet” in a general sense, you would say Ein Apfel ist süß—that shifts the meaning to any random apple.
Why is the verb ist used here instead of hat?
In German, you use sein (“to be”) to describe inherent qualities or states (being sweet). Haben (“to have”) would imply possession of sweetness, which isn’t how German expresses that an object tastes or is.
Why doesn’t süß have an ending like süßer, süße, or süßen?
When an adjective follows a form of sein (in predicate position), it remains uninflected. Only adjectives before nouns (attributive position) take endings to match gender, case, and number.