Der Onlinekurs beginnt nächste Woche.

to begin

Breakdown of Der Onlinekurs beginnt nächste Woche.

• die Woche: the week
• nächste: next
• der Onlinekurs: the online course

Questions & Answers about Der Onlinekurs beginnt nächste Woche.

Why is it Der Onlinekurs and not Die or Das Onlinekurs?

In German, every noun has a grammatical gender:

• der = masculine
• die = feminine
• das = neuter

Kurs (course) is a masculine noun in German: der Kurs.
Onlinekurs is a compound noun: Online + Kurs. In German compounds, the last part (Kurs) decides the gender, so:

• der Kurs → der Onlinekurs

You simply need to learn with the noun that it’s der Kurs, and therefore der Onlinekurs. There is no logical rule from the meaning; it’s just part of vocabulary learning.

What exactly is Onlinekurs, and why is it written as one capitalized word?

German often creates new nouns by joining words together:

• Online (online) + Kurs (course) → Onlinekurs (online course)

Rules here:

1. All nouns are capitalized in German, so Onlinekurs must start with a capital letter.
2. Compound nouns are usually written as one word: Onlinekurs, not Online Kurs. (A hyphen Online-Kurs is also possible and correct, especially in advertising or to improve readability.)

Plural:

• Singular: der Onlinekurs
• Plural: die Onlinekurse