Learn Hardcore German: Der Große hilft den Kleinen im Garten. - The big one helps the little ones in the garden.

In German, when an adjective stands alone and replaces a noun (like “the tall one,” “the small ones”), it is written with a capital letter and treated like a noun. This is called a substantiviertes Adjektiv (nominalized adjective).

What does Der Große literally mean? Is it “the big one” or “the tall one”?

Literally it is “the big one” or “the tall one”, and it usually refers to a person (often a male person here, because of der).

The adjective groß can mean:

tall (for people)
big/large (for objects or more generally)

So der Große can be understood as:

the tall one (most common for a person)
or the big one (depending on context)

The exact nuance (tall vs big) comes from context, not from the grammar.

Why is it Der Große and not Die Große?

Because der is the nominative masculine singular article. It tells you that the “big/tall one” is:

grammatically masculine
singular
and the subject of the sentence

So:

der Große = the tall/big one (male, subject)
die Große could be:
- nominative feminine singular (“the tall/big one” – female), or
- plural of any gender (“the tall/big ones”), depending on context and verb form.

Here, the verb hilft is 3rd person singular, so Der Große must be singular. Using die here would change the gender (and potentially the number).

Why does Große end in -e, and Kleinen end in -en?

The endings come from adjective declension and depend on:

the article,
the case,
the number (singular/plural),
the gender.

Der Große
- Case: nominative (subject)
- Number: singular
- Gender: masculine
- Article: der (definite)
  → Weak declension: adjective ending -e → Große
den Kleinen
- Case: dative (indirect object, after helfen)
- Number: plural
- Article: den (dative plural definite article)
  → In dative plural, adjectives after the article normally take -en → Kleinen

So: der Große (nom. sg. masc.) vs den Kleinen (dat. pl.).

Why is it den Kleinen and not die Kleinen?

Because helfen (to help) in German takes the dative case, not the accusative.

die Kleinen is nominative or accusative plural
den Kleinen is dative plural

Since helfen must be followed by a dative object, the correct form is:

Der Große hilft den Kleinen.
= The tall/big one helps the small ones.

Saying “Der Große hilft die Kleinen” would be wrong, because it uses the accusative after helfen, which is not allowed.

What exactly does den Kleinen mean?

den Kleinen is the dative plural of a nominalized adjective:

klein = small, little
die Kleinen (nominative/accusative plural) = the small ones / the little ones
den Kleinen (dative plural) = to the small ones / for the little ones

In the sentence:

Der Große hilft den Kleinen.
= The tall/big one helps the small ones.
Literally: The tall one helps *to the small ones.
That “to” feeling is encoded by the *dative in German, not by a separate preposition.

Why is Kleinen capitalized?

As with Große, Kleinen is an adjective being used as a noun:

As adjective: die kleinen Kinder = the small children (lowercase)
As noun: die Kleinen = the small ones / the little ones (capitalized)

So den Kleinen is the dative plural of this noun-like form: to/for the small ones.
Nominalized adjectives in German are always capitalized.

Why is the verb hilft and not helfen or something else?

hilft is the 3rd person singular present tense form of helfen.

Conjugation of helfen in the present tense:

ich helfe
du hilfst
er/sie/es hilft
wir helfen
ihr helft
sie/Sie helfen

The subject here is Der Große = he → er hilft.
So we must use hilft, not helfen.

What does im mean, and why not in dem Garten?

im is just a contraction of in dem:

in
- dem → im

Both mean “in the” when followed by a masculine or neuter noun in the dative case.

in dem Garten = in the garden
im Garten = in the garden

In everyday German, im Garten is much more common and sounds more natural than in dem Garten in this sentence.

Why is it im Garten (dative) and not in den Garten (accusative)?

The preposition in can take either:

dative = location (where something is)
accusative = direction (where something is going, movement into)

Here, im Garten describes where the helping takes place (a static location), so German uses the dative:

im Garten (in dem Garten) – dative → in the garden (location)
in den Garten – accusative → into the garden (movement towards/into)

The sentence is about helping in the garden, not going into it, so im Garten is correct.

Why is the word order Der Große hilft den Kleinen im Garten and not something else?

The basic word order in a main clause in German is:

Position 1: often the subject (here: Der Große)
Position 2: the conjugated verb (here: hilft)
The rest (objects, adverbials, etc.) in fairly flexible order

So:

Der Große (subject)
hilft (verb)
den Kleinen (indirect object)
im Garten (adverbial: place)

You could also say:

Im Garten hilft der Große den Kleinen.
(Putting im Garten first for emphasis on the location.)

But the verb must stay in second position in a main clause.

How do you pronounce Große and what is the function of ß?

Große is pronounced roughly like “GROH-seh” in English.

groß = /ɡʁoːs/ (long “o,” sharp “s” sound)
The letter ß (called Eszett or scharfes S) represents a voiceless s sound after a long vowel or diphthong.
In many contexts, especially in Switzerland, ß is replaced with ss, so you might see Grosse instead of Große.

So pronunciation-wise:

Große ≈ GROH-seh
Kleinen ≈ KLYE-nen (with German “ei” like English “eye”)
Garten ≈ GAR-ten (r rolled or tapped, depending on accent)