Der Wert ihrer Worte erschien mir größer als jede Zahl im Vertrag.

The value of her words seemed greater to me than any number in the contract.

Breakdown of Der Wert ihrer Worte erschien mir größer als jede Zahl im Vertrag.

• in: in
• groß: big
• mir: me
• als: than
• das Wort: the word
• der Vertrag: the contract
• erscheinen: to appear
• die Zahl: the number
• der Wert: the value
• ihrer: her
• jede: any

Questions & Answers about Der Wert ihrer Worte erschien mir größer als jede Zahl im Vertrag.

Why is ihrer Worte in the genitive case rather than using another case?

German uses the genitive to express possession or “of”-relationships. Here Der Wert ihrer Worte literally means “the value of their words.”

• Wort has the plural Worte (used for utterances or meaningful speech).
• The possessive pronoun ihr- (“their”) takes the genitive plural ending -er, yielding ihrer.
  Together, ihrer Worte marks “of their words.”

Why does the sentence use mir after erschien, and what role does it play?

The verb erscheinen (to appear, to seem) takes a dative object indicating the person to whom something appears. In English you say “it seemed to me,” and in German the experiencer is in the dative: mir.
Structure:

1. Subject: Der Wert ihrer Worte
2. Verb: erschien
3. Dative object: mir
4. Predicative adjective: größer als …

Why is größer not inflected with an ending, unlike adjectives before nouns?

Because größer here is a predicative adjective (it follows a linking verb) rather than an attributive adjective (which comes before a noun).

• Predicative: Das Haus ist größer. → no ending
• Attributive: ein größeres Haus → adjective takes -es
  In our sentence, erscheinen links the subject and the adjective, so größer remains uninflected.

Why is the comparative formed with als rather than wie in this sentence?

German distinguishes:

• als is used in unequal comparisons (bigger than, older than, etc.). → größer als
• wie is used in equal comparisons (as big as, as old as). → so groß wie
  Since the sentence expresses “greater than” (inequality), it must be als.

What is the difference between Worte and Wörter, and why is Worte used here?

• Wörter refers to individual words, countable vocabulary items.
• Worte (an older plural) emphasizes the content or significance of what was said—utterances, expressions.
  Because we’re talking about the value of someone’s meaningful speech, Worte is the appropriate choice.

In the phrase größer als jede Zahl im Vertrag, why is jede Zahl singular, and could we use alle Zahlen instead?

Using jede Zahl (“each number”) highlights that not even a single number in the contract matches that value.
You could say größer als alle Zahlen im Vertrag (“greater than all the numbers in the contract”), which emphasizes the collective set rather than each individual figure. The nuance changes slightly, but both are grammatically correct.

Why is im Vertrag used, and what does the contraction im stand for?

im is the contraction of in dem, where in requires the dative for a static location.

• der Vertrag (nominative) → dem Vertrag (dative)
• in dem Vertrag → contracted to im Vertrag
  Thus im Vertrag simply means “in the contract.”