Breakdown of Das Ergebnis ist überraschend gut.
sein
to be
gut
good
das Ergebnis
the result
überraschend
surprising
Questions & Answers about Das Ergebnis ist überraschend gut.
Why is it Das Ergebnis and not Die Ergebnis or Der Ergebnis?
In German, every noun has a grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter.
- Ergebnis is grammatically neuter, so it takes the neuter definite article das.
- der = masculine (e.g. der Tisch)
- die = feminine (e.g. die Lampe) and also plural
- das = neuter (e.g. das Ergebnis)
There is no fully reliable rule to predict the gender from the form of Ergebnis; you simply have to learn it with its article: das Ergebnis.
What case is Ergebnis in, and why?
Ergebnis is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence.
Structure:
- Das Ergebnis = subject (nominative)
- ist = verb
- überraschend gut = predicate (a description of the subject)
Verbs like sein (to be) take a nominative subject and then a predicate that describes that subject. There is no object in this sentence, so no accusative or dative case is needed.
Why is it gut and not gutes or guter here?