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Questions & Answers about Der Unterschied ist deutlich.
Why is it der Unterschied and not die Unterschied or das Unterschied?
Because Unterschied has masculine grammatical gender in German. Every noun has a fixed gender that you must learn with the word:
- der Unterschied – masculine (the difference)
- ein Unterschied – a difference
There is no logical rule that says Unterschied must be masculine; it’s simply a vocabulary fact. A good habit is always to learn nouns with their article, e.g. der Unterschied, die Frage, das Problem.
What case is der in this sentence, and why?
In Der Unterschied ist deutlich., der is in the nominative case.
Reason:
- The subject of the sentence is der Unterschied.
- After the verb sein (to be), the subject is in nominative.
- So we use der (nominative masculine singular), not den (accusative) or dem (dative).
Why is it deutlich and not deutliche here?