Word
Der Duft des Brotes ist angenehm.
Meaning
The scent of the bread is pleasant.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Der Duft des Brotes ist angenehm.
sein
to be
das Brot
the bread
der Duft
the scent
angenehm
pleasant
Questions & Answers about Der Duft des Brotes ist angenehm.
Why is Der used before Duft?
Duft is a masculine noun in German. In the nominative singular (the subject of the sentence), the definite article for masculine nouns is Der.
Why is it des Brotes instead of something like der Brot or just Brot?
The phrase des Brotes is in the genitive case, which expresses possession or “of-ness” (“the scent of the bread”). Since Brot is a neuter noun, its genitive singular article is des, and it takes the noun ending -es, giving des Brotes.
How do I know that Brot takes -es in the genitive, not just des Brots?
Many one-syllable neuter and masculine nouns add -es in the genitive singular (e.g. des Hauses, des Kindes). While colloquial speech sometimes uses des Brots, the standard written form is des Brotes.
Why isn’t the adjective angenehm inflected (e.g. angenehme) here?
After a linking verb like ist, any following adjective is in the predicate position and remains uninflected. Predicate adjectives (describing the subject via sein, werden, bleiben) do not take endings.
Could I say instead?