Breakdown of Das Zitat steht im Buch.
in
in
dem
the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
stehen
to stand
das Buch
the book
Questions & Answers about Das Zitat steht im Buch.
Why is Zitat a neuter noun in German and not masculine or feminine?
In German every noun has one of three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter).
- Zitat ends in –at, a suffix borrowed from Latin. Many German nouns with this ending (e.g. Apparat, Format) are neuter.
- Unfortunately, you often have to learn the gender along with the noun or look it up in a dictionary.
Why do we use the verb steht instead of simply saying ist in this sentence?
German often uses verbs of position (stehen, liegen, hängen, sitzen) to describe where something is located.
- stehen literally means “to stand,” but idiomatically it also means “to be printed” or “to be positioned upright.”
- Saying Das Zitat steht im Buch emphasizes that the quotation is “standing” (i.e. printed) in the book.
- You could say ist (“is”), but it sounds less natural if you want to pinpoint where printed text can be found.
What case is used in im Buch, and why?
im is the contraction of in + dem, so it’s dative.
- The preposition in is a two-way preposition:
• accusative for movement or direction (“into”),
• dative for location or position (“in”). - Here we describe a static location (“where the quote is”), so we use dative: in dem Buch → im Buch.