Learn Hardcore German: Manche Nutzer schreiben anonyme Kommentare, und die Anonymität macht manche Leute leider sehr unfreundlich. - Some users write anonymous comments, and the anonymity unfortunately makes some people very unfriendly.

manche
- Often implies “some (of them), quite a few, certain people”.
- Can have a slightly generalizing or even slightly negative tone in contexts like this: manche Leute = “some people (are like that)”.
- Works in both singular and plural:
  - Mancher Nutzer = some a user / quite a user (rather literary)
  - Manche Nutzer = some users
einige
- More neutral, like “several / a number of”.
- Often sounds a bit more objective or counting-like.

In this sentence, manche Nutzer fits well because the speaker is making a somewhat critical general observation about “some” users, not just counting them.

Why is it manche Leute and not manchen Leute or mancher Leute?

This is a question about case and endings.

Leute is the direct object of macht → it is in the accusative plural.
manche here is a determiner/pronoun that must match Leute in case, number, and gender.

For manch‑ in the plural:

Nominative plural: manche Leute (some people)
Accusative plural: manche Leute (same ending)
Dative plural: manchen Leuten
Genitive plural: mancher Leute

So in this sentence, accusative plural is required → manche Leute is correct.

manchen Leute would be wrong, because dative plural needs Leuten:

Correct dative: mit manchen Leuten (= with some people)

mancher Leute would be genitive plural:

Correct genitive: mancher Leute (= of some people)

Why is Nutzer capitalized, and what are its gender and plural?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, so Nutzer, Kommentare, Anonymität, Leute all start with a capital letter.

For Nutzer:

Gender (singular): der Nutzer (masculine)
Plural: die Nutzer

Pattern:

Singular: der Nutzer
Plural: die Nutzer

There is also a common synonym Benutzer:

der Benutzer, plural die Benutzer

Both Nutzer and Benutzer mean “user” (e.g. of a website or service); Nutzer is just shorter and very common in modern usage.

Why is there no article before anonyme Kommentare? Why not die anonyme Kommentare or einige anonyme Kommentare?

In German, plural nouns can appear without any article when you mean “some… in general”:

Menschen essen Brot. = People eat bread.
Studenten lesen Bücher. = Students read books.

Here, anonyme Kommentare is such an indefinite plural. It means:

Manche Nutzer schreiben anonyme Kommentare.
≈ “Some users write anonymous comments (some, not all, in general).”

If you add an article or determiner, you slightly change the focus:

Manche Nutzer schreiben die anonymen Kommentare.
= “Some users write the anonymous comments.”
(refers to specific anonymous comments already known in the context)
Manche Nutzer schreiben einige anonyme Kommentare.
= “Some users write some anonymous comments.”
(emphasizes quantity “a few”, not anonymity in general)

The original sentence wants to talk about anonymous comments in general, so no article is natural.

Why does anonyme end with -e in anonyme Kommentare?

This is an adjective ending question.

Kommentar is masculine: der Kommentar
Kommentare is plural: die Kommentare
There is no article before the adjective (anonyme Kommentare, not die anonyme Kommentare)

In German, when you have:

Plural noun
No article
Adjective before the noun

…the adjective takes strong endings. For plural nominative/accusative, the strong ending is -e.

So:

Nominative plural: anonyme Kommentare sind problematisch.
Accusative plural: Ich lese anonyme Kommentare.

Same pattern with other nouns:

alte Bücher (old books)
teure Handys (expensive phones)
nette Leute (nice people)

Why is there a comma before und in this sentence?

German comma rules are stricter than English:

The sentence consists of two main clauses:

Manche Nutzer schreiben anonyme Kommentare,
und die Anonymität macht manche Leute leider sehr unfreundlich.

Each clause has its own finite verb:

schreiben
macht

When two independent main clauses are joined by und, German requires a comma:

…, und …

So the comma is not optional here; it’s required because you’re joining two full sentences.

What is the grammatical role of die Anonymität in the second clause?

In … und die Anonymität macht manche Leute leider sehr unfreundlich, we have:

die Anonymität → subject (nominative singular, feminine)
macht → verb
manche Leute → direct object (accusative plural)
sehr unfreundlich → predicate adjective describing Leute
leider → sentence adverb (“unfortunately”)

So die Anonymität is the thing that does the making; it is the grammatical subject of the second clause.

Why is it macht manche Leute sehr unfreundlich and not macht manche Leute sehr unfreundliche?

This is about predicative adjectives versus attributive adjectives.

unfreundlich here describes the state of Leute after the action of macht, so it is a predicative adjective (used after a verb).
Predicative adjectives in German appear in their basic form, without endings:
- Die Leute sind unfreundlich.
- Das macht mich traurig.
- Die Situation macht ihn nervös.

So:

macht manche Leute sehr unfreundlich = makes some people very unfriendly
(unfreundlich in base form after macht → correct)

If you said:

sehr unfreundliche Leute

then unfreundliche would be an attributive adjective directly before a noun, and it would need an ending:

sehr unfreundliche Leute beschweren sich.
(very unfriendly people complain.)

But that is a different structure and meaning: it describes already-unfriendly people, not people who are made unfriendly by anonymity.

Where can leider go in this clause, and does the position change the meaning?

leider is a sentence adverb (like “unfortunately”), and German gives it some flexibility in position. Common options:

Original:
- … die Anonymität macht manche Leute leider sehr unfreundlich.
- Neutral; leider is in the middle field, after the object.
Slightly different focus:
- … die Anonymität macht leider manche Leute sehr unfreundlich.
  - Here leider comes earlier; some speakers feel this emphasizes the regret a bit more.
Also possible:
- … die Anonymität macht manche Leute sehr unfreundlich, leider.
  - leider at the end sounds more spoken and emotional, like an afterthought.
Fronted (strong emphasis):
- Leider macht die Anonymität manche Leute sehr unfreundlich.
  - Starting with Leider strongly highlights the “unfortunately” aspect.

All versions keep the basic meaning, but word order lets you shift emphasis slightly. The original version is very natural and neutral.

Why does the sentence use Leute instead of Menschen or Personen?

All three can mean “people”, but with different nuances:

Leute
- Very common, everyday word for “people” as a group.
- Often somewhat informal.
- Rarely used in the singular (ein Leute is wrong).
Menschen
- More neutral and can sound a bit more serious or formal.
- Often used when talking about human beings in general, with a bit more dignity or abstraction:
  - Menschenrechte = human rights
Personen
- More official / legal / bureaucratic or precise:
  - maximal 4 Personen (in an elevator)
  - unbekannte Personen (unknown persons)

In this sentence:

manche Leute = “some people” in an informal, everyday way, which matches the context of users and online behavior.

How do we know that Kommentare and Leute are in the accusative case here?

We look at what the verbs are doing:

Manche Nutzer schreiben anonyme Kommentare.
- Wer? (who?) schreibt? → manche Nutzer = subject (nominative).
- Was? (what?) schreiben sie? → anonyme Kommentare = direct object (accusative).
Die Anonymität macht manche Leute sehr unfreundlich.
- Was? (what?) macht unfreundlich? → die Anonymität = subject (nominative).
- Wen oder was? (whom or what?) macht sie unfreundlich? → manche Leute = direct object (accusative).

Forms:

Kommentare
- Singular: der Kommentar (Nom.), den Kommentar (Acc.)
- Plural: die Kommentare for both nominative and accusative
  → Accusative plural looks the same as nominative plural.
Leute
- Typically used only in plural: die Leute
  → Nominative plural and accusative plural look the same.

So we identify the case by function in the sentence (subject vs. object), not by the form alone.

Could we replace manche Leute with sie in the second clause? For example: … und die Anonymität macht sie leider sehr unfreundlich. Would that be correct?

Yes, grammatically this is correct:

Manche Nutzer schreiben anonyme Kommentare, und die Anonymität macht sie leider sehr unfreundlich.

Here, sie refers back to an earlier plural noun. However, there’s a potential ambiguity:

It could refer to manche Nutzer (some users).
But if more nouns were mentioned before, the reference might be unclear.

By repeating manche Leute, the sentence:

Switches from talking about Nutzer (users) to Leute (people more generally).
Makes the statement broader: anonymity not only affects “users” but “people”.

So sie is grammatically fine, but manche Leute is clearer and stylistically chosen to generalize the idea.

What is the relationship between anonym, anonyme, and Anonymität?

These forms belong to the same word family:

anonym
- Base adjective: “anonymous”
- Example: ein anonymer Kommentar (an anonymous comment)
anonyme
- Same adjective with an ending, depending on case, number, gender:
  - ein anonymer Kommentar (Nom. sg. masc.)
  - eine anonyme Nachricht (Nom. sg. fem.)
  - anonyme Kommentare (Nom./Acc. pl.)
die Anonymität
- Noun: “anonymity”
- Feminine: die Anonymität
- Capitalized because it’s a noun.

So:

anonyme Kommentare = anonymous comments
die Anonymität = the state or condition of being anonymous

Could we instead say Manche Nutzer schreiben Kommentare anonym? What is the difference from anonyme Kommentare schreiben?

Both are possible, but there is a small nuance:

Manche Nutzer schreiben anonyme Kommentare.
- anonyme is an adjective describing Kommentare.
- Focus is slightly more on the type of comments: they are anonymous comments as a category.
Manche Nutzer schreiben Kommentare anonym.
- anonym is an adverb describing how they write comments.
- Focus is a bit more on the manner of writing (they write anonymously).

In many contexts these will be understood almost the same, but:

anonyme Kommentare sounds more like you are talking about the objects (the comments).
Kommentare anonym schreiben highlights more the action/manner of writing.

The original sentence fits well because later you talk about die Anonymität, so describing them as anonyme Kommentare ties in nicely with that noun.