Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft.

Every person needs fresh air.

Breakdown of Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft.

• brauchen: to need
• frisch: fresh
• der Mensch: the person
• die Luft: the air
• jeder: every; (feminine, dative)

Questions & Answers about Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft.

Why does the sentence use Jeder Mensch instead of Alle Menschen?

Both are possible, but they feel slightly different:

• Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft.
  Literally: Every person needs fresh air.
  Focus: each individual human, one by one. It sounds a bit more personal or philosophical.

• Alle Menschen brauchen frische Luft.
  Literally: All people need fresh air.
  Focus: humanity as a whole group.

Grammatically:

• jeder Mensch = singular
• alle Menschen = plural

The verb must agree:

• jeder Mensch braucht (3rd person singular)
• alle Menschen brauchen (3rd person plural)

Could you leave out Mensch and just say Jeder braucht frische Luft?

Yes, you can say:

• Jeder braucht frische Luft.

This is perfectly correct and common. Jeder already implies “everyone / every person” in context.

However:

• Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft. sounds a bit more formal, explicit, or philosophical.
• Jeder braucht frische Luft. sounds more conversational and compact.

What exactly does jeder mean here, and how is it declined?

In this sentence, jeder means every / each and refers to a masculine singular noun in the nominative case (Mensch).

Basic present-tense nominative forms:

• Masculine: jeder Mensch – every person (masc.)
• Feminine: jede Frau – every woman
• Neuter: jedes Kind – every child
• Plural: alle Menschen – all people (there is no “jeder Menschen”)

You choose the form of jeder according to the gender and case of the noun that follows.
Here, Mensch is masculine nominative singular, so you use jeder.

Why is Mensch capitalized?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, regardless of where they appear in the sentence.

• Mensch is a noun → it must be capitalized.
• jeder and braucht and frische are not nouns → they stay lowercase (unless at the start of a sentence).

So it’s always der Mensch, ein Mensch, Mensch – never mensch in standard writing.

What does Mensch mean exactly? Is it the same as “person”?

Mensch literally means human being or person.

Nuances:

• In neutral statements like Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft, it just means “every person / every human”.
• In some contexts, Mensch can have a slightly emotional or moral tone (e.g. “Sei doch ein Mensch!” – “Be human / show some compassion”).

But in this sentence, it’s simply a neutral word for “human being / person”.

Why is the verb braucht and not brauchen?

Brauchen is the infinitive: to need.

In the sentence, the subject is jeder Mensch → 3rd person singular.
So you must conjugate:

• ich brauche – I need
• du brauchst – you need
• er/sie/es braucht – he/she/it needs
• wir brauchen – we need
• ihr braucht – you (pl.) need
• sie brauchen – they need / you (formal) need

Jeder Mensch behaves like er (“he / it” in grammar terms), so you use:

• Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft.

Why use brauchen and not müssen here?

Both relate to necessity, but they work differently:

• brauchen + noun
  → etwas brauchen = to need something

  • Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft.
    Everyone needs fresh air.

• müssen + verb
  → etwas tun müssen = must / have to do something

  • Jeder Mensch muss atmen.
    Every person must breathe.

You cannot say:

• Jeder Mensch muss frische Luft. ✗ (wrong structure)

So for a needed thing, you use brauchen. For a necessary action, you use müssen.

Why is there no article before frische Luft (why not die frische Luft)?

In German, mass or abstract nouns can often be used without an article when speaking in a general sense:

• Wasser ist wichtig. – Water is important.
• Leben ist kurz. – Life is short.
• Frische Luft ist wichtig. – Fresh air is important.

In Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft, you are talking about fresh air in general, not some specific air.
That’s why no article is natural:

• braucht frische Luft (general)
• braucht die frische Luft (a specific fresh air, e.g. “the fresh air” outside right now)

What case is frische Luft, and why is the adjective ending -e?

Frische Luft is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of the verb brauchen (“to need something”).

• Subject (nominative): Jeder Mensch
• Verb: braucht
• Direct object (accusative): frische Luft

Luft is a feminine noun: die Luft.

Feminine singular accusative without an article uses the adjective ending -e:

• frische Luft (feminine acc. with no article)
  Compare:
• die frische Luft (with definite article)
• eine frische Luft (with indefinite article – rarely used in practice with “Luft”, but grammatically possible)

So the -e in frische matches feminine singular accusative with no article.

Is Luft always singular? Can it be plural?

In this meaning (“air”), Luft is usually treated as an uncountable noun and used in the singular:

• die Luft – the air
• frische Luft – fresh air

There is a plural form Lüfte, but:

• It is rare and poetic or used in special expressions, e.g.
  
  • die kühlen Lüfte – the cool airs/breezes (poetic)
  • die Lüfte in phrases like „sich in die Lüfte erheben“ (“to rise into the air”).

In everyday language for “air you breathe”, you almost always use the singular.

Could you change the word order, for example Frische Luft braucht jeder Mensch? Is that still correct?

Yes, that is grammatically correct:

• Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft. (neutral word order)
• Frische Luft braucht jeder Mensch. (emphasizes frische Luft)

German allows some flexibility with word order, especially moving known or emphasized elements to the front.

In both versions, the finite verb must remain in second position:

1. Jeder (1st element) – braucht (2nd element) – frische Luft
2. Frische Luft (1st element) – braucht (2nd element) – jeder Mensch

So changing the order changes the emphasis, but not the basic meaning.

Why is the present tense used? Could it also mean a general truth?

Yes. In German, the present tense (Präsens) is commonly used for:

• actions happening now
• general truths or facts that are always valid

Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft. states a general fact about human beings. That’s exactly the standard use of the present tense, similar to English:

• “Water boils at 100°C.”
• “Every person needs fresh air.”

You don’t need any special tense or construction for “general truths” in German; the plain present is used.

How do you pronounce Jeder Mensch braucht frische Luft?

Approximate pronunciation (IPA and English hints):

• Jeder – /ˈjeːdɐ/

  • J like English y in yes
  • long ee sound in je-
  • final -er often sounds like a reduced “uh” in many accents (YEH-duh).

• Mensch – /mɛnʃ/

  • e like in men
  • sch like English sh → mensh.

• braucht – /bʁaʊxt/

  • br with a German r (often guttural)
  • au like ow in how
  • ch here is the harsh sound /x/ (like the “ch” in Scottish loch)
  • final t is clearly pronounced.

• frische – /ˈfʁɪʃə/

  • fri- like frish- in frisky but shorter i
  • sch = “sh”
  • final -e is a relaxed “uh” sound.

• Luft – /lʊft/

  • u like oo in book (not like boot)
  • final ft clearly pronounced.

Spoken smoothly, it sounds roughly like:
"YEH-duh MENSH browxt FRISH-uh LUFT."