Learn Hardcore German: Das Gewitter bringt lauten Donner, aber der Blitz ist kaum zu sehen. - The thunderstorm brings loud thunder, but the lightning is hardly visible.

Because Gewitter is a neuter noun in German. Every noun has a grammatical gender, and “das Gewitter” (the thunderstorm) takes the neuter article das in the singular.

What case is lauten Donner, and why does the adjective end in -en?

Donner is the direct object of bringt, so it’s in the accusative case. Without an article, attributive adjectives use the strong declension.
– Masculine singular accusative strong ending = -en
Hence lauten Donner (“loud thunder”).

Why is there no article before lauten Donner?

German allows you to drop the article when speaking about something in general or when the adjective preceding a noun carries the needed information. Here, the focus is on the general phenomenon (“loud thunder”), so you simply say lauten Donner.

Why is the adjective laut written as lauten and not lauter or laut?

lauter can be a comparative (“louder”) or a weakly inflected form after a definite article.
laut alone would be uninflected, which isn’t allowed here.
As a bare adjective before a noun with strong declension (no article), masculine singular accusative requires -en → lauten.

Is the comma before aber mandatory?

In standard German, aber is a coordinating conjunction, so you normally don’t need a comma. However, many writers include a comma before aber when joining two independent clauses for clarity. Both
– Das Gewitter bringt lauten Donner, aber der Blitz ist kaum zu sehen.
and
– Das Gewitter bringt lauten Donner aber der Blitz ist kaum zu sehen.
are acceptable.

What does kaum zu sehen mean, and why this word order?

kaum zu sehen literally means “hardly to see,” i.e. “barely visible.”
– kaum = “hardly, barely”
– zu sehen = infinitive with zu (“to see”)
In German, adverbs like kaum precede the infinitive clause: kaum zu sehen.

Why is Blitz in the singular (“der Blitz”), not plural?

Using the singular can generalize the phenomenon: “the lightning (flash)” in general is hardly visible. If you wanted to emphasize multiple flashes, you could say die Blitze, but singular is perfectly natural to talk about lightning as a whole.

Could you replace kaum zu sehen with kaum sichtbar?

Yes.
– kaum sichtbar = “hardly visible”
– kaum zu sehen = “barely to be seen”
Both convey the same idea; kaum zu sehen is very common in everyday speech.

Why are Gewitter, Donner, and Blitz capitalized?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, no matter where they occur in a sentence. That’s why you see Gewitter, Donner, and Blitz with initial capitals.