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Die Wissenschaft ist wichtig.

Die Wissenschaft ist wichtig.
Science is important.
FromLesson 30inHardcore German

Breakdown of Die Wissenschaft ist wichtig.

sein
to be
wichtig
important
die Wissenschaft
the science

Questions & Answers about Die Wissenschaft ist wichtig.

What is the gender and case of die Wissenschaft, and how can I tell?

• die is the feminine singular definite article in the nominative case.
• You know it’s nominative because Wissenschaft is the subject of the sentence.
• You know it’s feminine because die (not der or das) is used.

Why is Wissenschaft capitalized?
In German, all nouns are always capitalized, regardless of where they appear in a sentence.
Why do we use ist here instead of sind?

• ist is the third‐person singular form of the verb sein (to be).
• Since Wissenschaft is singular, it takes ist.
• You would use sind only with plural subjects.

What part of speech is wichtig, and why doesn’t it have an ending like in “gutes” or “guter”?

• wichtig is an adjective.
• Here it’s used predicatively (linked by ist) rather than attributively (directly modifying a noun).
• Predicative adjectives in German do not take adjective endings.

Could you say Wissenschaft ist wichtig without the article? If so, what’s the nuance?

Yes.
• Wissenschaft ist wichtig treats “science” more abstractly or generally, like “Science is important” as a universal truth.
• Die Wissenschaft ist wichtig feels slightly more concrete, pointing to the field of science or a particular science community.

Is Wissenschaft countable? What about die Wissenschaften?

• Wissenschaft is usually uncountable when you mean “science” as a whole.
• Wissenschaften (plural) refers to distinct scientific disciplines (e.g., Naturwissenschaften, Geisteswissenschaften).
• In everyday speech, you’ll most often see the singular for “science in general.”

What is the basic word order in this sentence?

It follows the standard German main‐clause pattern:

  1. Subject (Die Wissenschaft)
  2. Verb (ist)
  3. Predicate (wichtig)
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“How do German cases work?”
German has four grammatical cases: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object), and genitive (possession). The case determines the form of articles and adjectives. For example, "the dog" is "der Hund" as a subject but "den Hund" as a direct object.

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