Breakdown of Ich schreibe eine Notiz auf die erste Seite des Buches.
Questions & Answers about Ich schreibe eine Notiz auf die erste Seite des Buches.
In German, nouns have grammatical gender.
- Notiz is feminine: die Notiz.
- The indefinite article for feminine singular is eine, not ein.
So in the accusative singular you get:
- Nominative: eine Notiz (A note is on the table – Eine Notiz liegt auf dem Tisch.)
- Accusative: eine Notiz (I write a note – Ich schreibe eine Notiz.)
For feminine nouns, nominative and accusative forms of the article are the same (eine).
Eine Notiz is the direct object of the verb schreiben:
- Wer schreibt? – Ich → subject (nominative)
- Was schreibe ich? – eine Notiz → direct object (accusative)
In German, verbs that “take” a direct object (like schreiben, sehen, kaufen) normally put that object in the accusative case.
So you must use eine Notiz (accusative), not eine Notiz in some other case. (It just happens that nominative and accusative look identical for feminine.)
The preposition auf is a two-way preposition (Wechselpräposition). With these prepositions, German uses:
- Accusative when there is movement toward a destination (where to?)
- Dative when there is no movement / just location (where?)
In your sentence:
- Ich schreibe eine Notiz auf die erste Seite
→ The action moves the note onto the first page (destination) → accusative
If you want to describe a location (no movement), you use dative:
- Die Notiz steht auf der ersten Seite des Buches.
→ The note is (located) on the first page → dative (auf der ersten Seite)
So:
- Wohin schreibe ich? → auf die erste Seite (accusative)
- Wo steht die Notiz? → auf der ersten Seite (dative)
Seite is grammatically feminine: die Seite. This is a vocabulary fact you just have to learn:
when you learn a noun, always learn it together with its article, e.g. die Seite.
Because Seite is feminine singular, its forms in your sentence are:
- Nominative: die erste Seite (subject or predicate)
- Accusative: die erste Seite (direct object / after two‑way preposition with movement)
The adjective erste gets its ending from the article + gender + case:
- Feminine singular, definite article die, nominative or accusative → adjective ending -e
→ die erste Seite, auf die erste Seite
That’s why it’s erste Seite, not ersten Seite or erster Seite here.
Des Buches is genitive case, showing possession or belonging:
- die erste Seite des Buches
→ literally: the first page of the book.
You could also express possession with von + dative:
- die erste Seite von dem Buch
→ usually contracted: die erste Seite vom Buch.
Differences:
- Genitive (des Buches):
- more compact, often a bit more formal or written style
- very common in noun phrases like this.
- von + Dative (vom Buch):
- more colloquial, very common in spoken German.
Dem Buch alone would be plain dative and doesn’t fit here, because you need a possessive relationship (the page of the book), not an indirect object.
Yes, des Buches and des Buchs are both grammatically correct genitive singular forms of das Buch.
- des Buches – more traditional / somewhat more formal
- des Buchs – shorter, very common in modern usage
In everyday modern German, des Buchs is probably more frequent, but you will definitely see and hear des Buches, especially in written or slightly formal contexts.
So both:
- die erste Seite des Buches
- die erste Seite des Buchs
are fine.
The contraction aufs is short for auf das:
- auf das → aufs
You can only use it with neuter nouns that take das:
- auf das Bett → aufs Bett
- auf das Blatt → aufs Blatt
But Seite is feminine: die Seite, so auf die Seite cannot be contracted to aufs Seite.
Therefore:
- auf die erste Seite (correct)
- aufs erste Seite (incorrect)
German does not have a standard grammatical progressive tense like English “I am writing”.
The normal present tense in German (schreibe) can express both:
- I write a note.
- I am writing a note.
So:
- Ich schreibe eine Notiz
can mean both I write a note and I am writing a note (right now), depending on context.
There is a colloquial construction am Schreiben sein (mainly used in some regions: Ich bin am Schreiben), but it’s not the standard way to form a progressive and is less common in formal or neutral written German. The sentence given uses neutral, standard present tense.
Yes, you can move phrases around; German word order is relatively flexible in the middle field (between the conjugated verb and the end of the clause).
These are all grammatically correct:
- Ich schreibe eine Notiz auf die erste Seite des Buches.
- Ich schreibe auf die erste Seite des Buches eine Notiz.
Both mean the same thing.
Differences are mostly about emphasis and flow:
- Version 1 (given sentence) is very natural and neutral.
- Version 2 puts a bit more focus on the destination auf die erste Seite des Buches – as if you contrast it with some other possible place.
The key rule you must keep is: in a main clause, the conjugated verb (schreibe) must stay in second position.
Yes, you can say:
- Ich schreibe eine Notiz ins Buch. (ins = in das)
This is also grammatically correct, but the meaning is less specific:
- auf die erste Seite des Buches
→ specifically on the first page - ins Buch
→ somewhere in the book (could be on any page, front, back, margin, etc.)
So your original sentence is more precise about where in the book the note goes.
The infinitive is schreiben (to write). It’s an irregular verb in the past, but the present tense stem is regular:
- ich schreibe – I write
- du schreibst – you write (singular, informal)
- er / sie / es schreibt – he / she / it writes
- wir schreiben – we write
- ihr schreibt – you write (plural, informal)
- sie schreiben – they write
- Sie schreiben – you write (formal)
In the sentence Ich schreibe eine Notiz…, schreibe is 1st person singular, present tense.
They are all related to “notes” or “messages,” but used differently:
Notiz
- a (usually short) note / jotting / reminder
- often something you write for yourself
- eine Notiz machen = to make a note
Note
- mainly: grade / mark in school (eine gute Note bekommen)
- also: musical note
- rarely used in the sense of “written note” in everyday German
Zettel
- a slip of paper / piece of paper
- often with something written on it: ein Zettel mit einer Notiz (a slip of paper with a note)
Nachricht
- message / piece of news (spoken, written, digital)
- e.g. eine Nachricht schreiben, eine SMS / WhatsApp‑Nachricht
In your sentence, Notiz is appropriate because you’re writing a short note onto a page.
German doesn’t use an apostrophe-s like English ’s to mark possession.
Instead, German typically uses:
Genitive case:
- des Buches
- die erste Seite des Buches (the book’s first page)
von + dative:
- vom Buch (von dem Buch)
- die erste Seite vom Buch
So where English says “the book’s first page”, German expresses that with either the genitive or von + Dative, not with an apostrophe.