Psychologie ist für meine Schwester interessant.

Psychology is interesting for my sister.

Breakdown of Psychologie ist für meine Schwester interessant.

• sein: to be
• interessant: interesting
• für: for
• mein: my
• die Schwester: the sister
• die Psychologie: the psychology

Questions & Answers about Psychologie ist für meine Schwester interessant.

Why is there no article before Psychologie? Shouldn’t it be die Psychologie?

In German, fields of study, school subjects, and many abstract ideas are often used without an article when you talk about them in general:

• Psychologie ist interessant. – Psychology is interesting.
• Mathematik ist schwer. – Mathematics is hard.
• Freiheit ist wichtig. – Freedom is important.

You can say die Psychologie when you’re talking about a specific branch or aspect:

• Die Psychologie des Lernens ist interessant. – The psychology of learning is interesting.

In your sentence, it’s the subject in general, so no article is used.

Why is it für meine Schwester and not für meiner Schwester?

Because für always takes the accusative case in German.

• Accusative feminine: meine Schwester
• Dative feminine: meiner Schwester

So:

• für meine Schwester ✅ (accusative, required by für)
• für meiner Schwester ❌ (dative, wrong after für)

Compare:

• für meinen Bruder (accusative masculine)
• für meine Schwester (accusative feminine)

How can I tell that meine Schwester is accusative here if it looks the same as nominative?

Feminine nouns with a possessive pronoun have the same form in nominative and accusative:

• Nominative: meine Schwester (My sister is here.)
• Accusative: Ich sehe meine Schwester. (I see my sister.)

So you can’t see the case from the ending alone; you have to look at the preposition:

• für always takes accusative → für meine Schwester must be accusative.

Why is interessant not interessante or interessanten?

Interessant here is a predicate adjective (used after a form of sein: ist interessant). Predicate adjectives in German do not get any endings:

• Der Film ist interessant. – The film is interesting.
• Die Filme sind interessant. – The films are interesting.
• Psychologie ist interessant.

Adjective endings appear when the adjective comes before a noun (an attributive adjective):

• ein interessanter Film
• eine interessante Vorlesung
• für meine interessierte Schwester

Could I also say Für meine Schwester ist Psychologie interessant? Is that different?

Yes, that word order is perfectly correct:

• Psychologie ist für meine Schwester interessant.
• Für meine Schwester ist Psychologie interessant.

The meaning is the same. The difference is emphasis:

• Starting with Psychologie focuses more on the subject (What is interesting?).
• Starting with Für meine Schwester emphasizes for whom it is interesting (As for my sister, psychology is interesting).

Both orders are natural.

What’s the difference between interessant für and interessiert an?

They express related but slightly different ideas:

1. interessant für + Akk. – “interesting for (someone)”

   • Psychologie ist für meine Schwester interessant.
     = Psychology is interesting for my sister.

2. interessiert an + Dat. – “interested in (something)”

   • Meine Schwester ist an Psychologie interessiert.
     = My sister is interested in psychology.

So:

• X ist interessant für Y. – X has the quality of being interesting to Y.
• Y ist interessiert an X. – Y has the feeling/attitude of being interested in X.

Both can often describe the same situation from different angles.

Can I say Psychologie interessiert meine Schwester instead of this sentence?

Yes, that’s another natural way to express a similar idea:

• Psychologie ist für meine Schwester interessant.
  = Psychology is interesting for my sister.
• Psychologie interessiert meine Schwester.
  = Psychology interests my sister.

The second version uses interessieren as a verb with a direct object (meine Schwester, accusative).

Subtle difference:

• ist interessant für describes a quality of psychology.
• interessiert describes the effect it has on your sister.

In everyday conversation, they’re very close in meaning.

Could I use interessiert instead of interessant here?

Not in the same structure. You cannot say:

• ❌ Psychologie ist für meine Schwester interessiert.

Instead, interessiert is used in different patterns:

1. jemand ist an etwas interessiert

   • Meine Schwester ist an Psychologie interessiert.
     = My sister is interested in psychology.

2. sich für etwas interessieren

   • Meine Schwester interessiert sich für Psychologie.
     = My sister is interested in psychology.

So:

• Psychologie ist interessant für meine Schwester.
• Meine Schwester ist an Psychologie interessiert.
• Meine Schwester interessiert sich für Psychologie.

All are correct, but interessiert can’t replace interessant in your original sentence.

Why is Schwester capitalized?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, regardless of their position in the sentence:

• die Schwester – the sister
• meine Schwester ist nett.
• Psychologie ist für meine Schwester interessant.

This includes names of fields like Psychologie, abstract nouns, etc. So capitalization is a clue that a word is functioning as a noun.

What gender is Schwester, and how do I see that from this sentence?

Schwester is a feminine noun (die Schwester).

Clues:

1. The base form in the dictionary is die Schwester (you’d learn this separately).

2. The possessive pronoun meine ends with -e, which is the typical ending for feminine singular in the nominative and accusative:

   • meine Schwester (feminine)
   • mein Bruder (masculine)
   • mein Kind (neuter)

So meine Schwester signals a feminine noun.

How would the sentence change if it were “brother” instead of “sister”?

Schwester (feminine) → Bruder (masculine):

• Psychologie ist für meinen Bruder interessant.

Changes:

• Preposition für still requires the accusative.
• Masculine accusative needs -en on the possessive: mein → meinen.

So you get:

• für meine Schwester (feminine accusative)
• für meinen Bruder (masculine accusative)

How is Psychologie pronounced in German?

In standard German, Psychologie is usually pronounced approximately like:

• /psy.xoloˈgiː/

Key points:

• Ps at the start: often both sounds are pronounced, like “ps” in upstairs (many speakers say something close to [psy-]).
• y here sounds like the German ü, similar to French u, with rounded lips.
• ch after a front vowel (y = ü) is the soft ich-sound: like the h in English huge, but more hissy.
• Final -ie is long -i: /iː/, like ee in see.

So it’s PÜ-cho-lo-GEE, with stress on the last syllable.