Breakdown of Solche Rezepte sind kompliziert.
sein
to be
das Rezept
the recipe
kompliziert
complicated
solche
such
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching German grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Solche Rezepte sind kompliziert.
What part of speech is solche in this sentence, and what does it mean?
solche is a demonstrative determiner (like English such). It points to a certain type or kind—in this case, “recipes of this kind.”
How do you decline solch in German, and why is it solche here?
solch- follows the strong declension pattern when it stands alone as a determiner. For plural you get:
- Nominative plural: solche
- Accusative plural: solche
- Dative plural: solchen
- Genitive plural: solcher
Here Rezepte is the nominative plural subject, so we use solche Rezepte.
Why isn’t there a separate article (like die) before Rezepte?
Because solche itself functions as the determiner. You can’t stack another article (die, ein) in front of the noun when you already have solche.
Why is the noun Rezepte in this form, and which case is it?
Rezepte is the plural of Rezept and it’s in the nominative case because it’s the sentence’s subject.
Why is the verb sind used here instead of ist?
Because Rezepte is plural, you need the 3rd-person plural form of sein, which is sind (not ist, which is 3rd-person singular).
Why doesn’t kompliziert have an ending of its own?
It’s used predicatively (after the linking verb sein). Predicative adjectives remain uninflected in German, so you use the bare form kompliziert.
How would kompliziert look if it were used attributively before a noun?
If you say “such complicated recipes” attributively, you’d say solche komplizierten Rezepte. Here komplizierten takes the weak ending -en because it follows the determiner solche, which already carries case, number, and gender information.
Can I use diese instead of solche, and what’s the nuance?
Yes. diese Rezepte means “these recipes” (specific ones you can point to), while solche Rezepte means “recipes of that kind” (general type). The choice depends on whether you mean “these very recipes” or “recipes like that.”
If I wanted to say “with such recipes,” how do I change the case and endings?
You’d switch to the dative plural: mit solchen Rezepten. The determiner solch- takes -en in dative plural (solchen), and Rezepte becomes Rezepten.
How would I turn the sentence into a yes/no question?
Invert verb and subject:
Sind solche Rezepte kompliziert?