Der Geruch in der Mülltonne ist furchtbar.

to be

Breakdown of Der Geruch in der Mülltonne ist furchtbar.

• in: in
• der Geruch: the smell
• die Mülltonne: the trash bin

Questions & Answers about Der Geruch in der Mülltonne ist furchtbar.

Why is it Der Geruch and not Die Geruch or Das Geruch?

Geruch is grammatically masculine in German, so it takes the masculine article der in the nominative singular.

• der Geruch = the smell (masculine, nominative singular)
• die Gerüche = the smells (feminine article die used for all plurals)

There is no fully reliable rule that tells you the gender just from the ending -uch, but many words with this ending are masculine (for example der Besuch, der Fluch, der Bruch, der Versuch).

In practice, you need to learn the noun together with its article:

• der Geruch (m.)
• die Mülltonne (f.)

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Why is it in der Mülltonne and not in die Mülltonne?

The preposition in can take either dative or accusative, depending on the meaning:

• Dative = position (where something is)
  → in der Mülltonne = in the trash can (already there, location)
• Accusative = movement (where something is going to)
  → in die Mülltonne = into the trash can (movement into it)

In this sentence, the smell is already in the trash can; you are talking about a location, not movement. Therefore you use the dative:

• in
  • die Mülltonne (feminine, accusative) → in die Mülltonne (movement into)
• in
  • der Mülltonne (feminine, dative) → in der Mülltonne (location in)

Because the meaning is “the smell in the trash can is terrible,” the correct form is in der Mülltonne.

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