Questions & Answers about Die Lehrerin ist streng.
German marks grammatical gender on nouns:
- Lehrer = male teacher (masculine)
- Lehrerin = female teacher (feminine)
The article must match the noun’s gender in the nominative case:
- der Lehrer = the (male) teacher
- die Lehrerin = the (female) teacher
So in Die Lehrerin ist streng, we are talking about a woman.
In this sentence, die is the definite article and means “the.”
- Die Lehrerin = the teacher (female)
The pronoun “she” in German is sie, not die:
- Sie ist streng. = She is strict.
So:
- Die Lehrerin ist streng. = The teacher is strict.
- Sie ist streng. = She is strict.
German adjectives behave differently depending on their position:
Predicative position (after sein, werden, bleiben etc.):
- Adjective has no ending.
- Die Lehrerin ist streng. (strict)
- Der Lehrer bleibt freundlich. (friendly)
Attributive position (directly before a noun):
- Adjective takes an ending.
- Die strenge Lehrerin (the strict teacher)
- Ein strenger Lehrer (a strict teacher)
In your sentence, streng is after the verb ist, so it stays in its base form.
You change both the noun and the article to the masculine forms:
- Der Lehrer ist streng. = The (male) teacher is strict.
Compare:
- Die Lehrerin ist streng. (female)
- Der Lehrer ist streng. (male)
The verb ist and the adjective streng stay the same.
They are related but not identical:
Die Lehrerin ist streng.
- Full sentence (subject + verb + complement)
- States a fact: the teacher is strict.
Die strenge Lehrerin
- Just a noun phrase, not a full sentence
- Describes which teacher: the strict teacher (as opposed to other teachers)
You could use the noun phrase inside a sentence:
- Die strenge Lehrerin gibt viele Hausaufgaben.
= The strict teacher gives a lot of homework.
In German, all nouns are capitalized, regardless of position in the sentence.
- Lehrerin is a noun, so it must be written with a capital L.
- This rule applies even in the middle of a sentence:
- Ich kenne die Lehrerin. Sie ist streng.
Adjectives like streng stay lowercase (unless they are part of a proper name, which they are not here).
- ist is the 3rd person singular, present tense form of the verb sein (to be).
- sein = infinitive (to be)
Some forms of sein in the present tense:
- ich bin – I am
- du bist – you are (informal singular)
- er / sie / es ist – he / she / it is
- wir sind – we are
- ihr seid – you are (informal plural)
- sie sind – they are / you are (formal)
So Die Lehrerin ist streng. literally: The teacher (she) is strict.
You need the plural of Lehrerin and the plural verb form:
- Singular: Die Lehrerin ist streng. = The (female) teacher is strict.
- Plural: Die Lehrerinnen sind streng. = The (female) teachers are strict.
Details:
- Lehrerin → Lehrerinnen (plural feminine form)
- ist (singular) → sind (plural)
If you mean a mixed group or just “teachers” in general (often defaulting to the masculine plural):
- Die Lehrer sind streng. = The teachers are strict.
Yes, you can say Streng ist die Lehrerin, but the focus changes slightly.
Die Lehrerin ist streng.
- Neutral word order, simple statement.
Streng ist die Lehrerin.
- More emphasis on streng.
- Sounds a bit more stylistic, poetic, or contrastive, like:
“Strict is the teacher (not, for example, friendly).”
Grammatically, both are correct; the first is more common in everyday speech.
You add nicht before the adjective:
- Die Lehrerin ist nicht streng.
= The (female) teacher is not strict.
Pattern:
- [Subject] + ist + nicht + [adjective].
- Der Lehrer ist nicht streng. – The (male) teacher is not strict.
- Die Lehrerin ist nicht freundlich. – The teacher is not friendly.