Der Fleißige bleibt im Büro und arbeitet weiter.

The diligent one stays in the office and keeps working.

Breakdown of Der Fleißige bleibt im Büro und arbeitet weiter.

• und: and
• arbeiten: to work
• bleiben: to stay
• im: in the; (masculine or neuter, dative)

Questions & Answers about Der Fleißige bleibt im Büro und arbeitet weiter.

What does Der Fleißige literally mean, and why does it look like an adjective used as a noun?

Der Fleißige literally means “the hard-working one” or “the diligent one”.

• fleißig = hard-working / diligent (adjective)
• When an adjective is turned into a noun referring to a person, German:
  
  • capitalizes it: Fleißige
  • adds an article: der
  • gives it an ending: -e → Fleißige

So Der Fleißige doesn’t name a specific noun like Mann or Mitarbeiter; it stands in for “the hard-working person (male)” and is understood from context. This is called a nominalized adjective (substantiviertes Adjektiv).

Why is Fleißige capitalized and why does it end in -e?

Two reasons:

1. Capitalization
   In German, all nouns are capitalized. When an adjective is used as a noun (nominalized), it is treated like a noun and is capitalized:

   • fleißig (adjective in normal use)
   • der Fleißige (nominalized adjective → noun)

2. Ending -e
   After the definite article der, the adjective (here: now acting as a noun) takes the weak ending -e in nominative singular masculine:

   • der fleißige Mann
     → dropping Mann but keeping the form: