Die Schwierigkeit macht die Übung interessant.

interesting

Breakdown of Die Schwierigkeit macht die Übung interessant.

• machen: to make
• die Übung: the exercise
• die Schwierigkeit: the difficulty

Questions & Answers about Die Schwierigkeit macht die Übung interessant.

Why do both Schwierigkeit and Übung use the article die?

Because both nouns are feminine and singular.

• die Schwierigkeit = the difficulty (feminine, singular, nominative)
• die Übung = the exercise (feminine, singular, accusative)

In this sentence:

• die Schwierigkeit is the subject → nominative case
• die Übung is the direct object → accusative case

For feminine nouns, nominative singular and accusative singular both use die, so they look the same. The function (subject vs. object) is shown by position and verb agreement, not by a different article form here.

How do I know which noun is the subject and which is the object?

In Die Schwierigkeit macht die Übung interessant.:

• The subject is the thing doing the action of the verb machen.
• The object is the thing being affected by the action.

So:

• die Schwierigkeit (the difficulty) is doing the “making” → subject (nominative)
• die Übung (the exercise) is what gets made interesting → direct object (accusative)

You can test this by switching to English word order:

• The difficulty makes the exercise interesting.

The one that matches the difficulty in English is the subject; the one that matches is the object.