Questions & Answers about Der Schnupfen macht mich heute müde.
What does Der Schnupfen literally mean, and why is Schnupfen capitalized?
Der Schnupfen literally means “the sniffles / the head cold / the runny-nose cold.”
- Schnupfen is a noun, and all nouns are capitalized in German, so it must start with a capital S.
- The article der is the definite article “the” for masculine nouns in the nominative case.
- So Der Schnupfen = “The cold / sniffles” as the subject of the sentence.
Why is the article der used? What gender is Schnupfen?
Schnupfen is grammatically masculine in German.
- Masculine singular, nominative definite article = der.
- In this sentence, Der Schnupfen is the subject, so it must be in the nominative case.
- Therefore der is the correct article: Der Schnupfen (not die or das).
Why is the verb macht used here, instead of just saying “I am tired”?