Learn Hardcore German: Jede Vokabel mit mehreren Bedeutungen ist für mich etwas besonders Wichtiges. - Every vocabulary word with several meanings is something particularly important for me.

Jede Vokabel … ist … – looking at the words one by one (“each such word is an especially important thing for me”).
Vokabeln … sind … – talking about them as a group (“words with several meanings are (in general) especially important to me”).

Both are correct; the original just emphasizes the idea of “each individual one”.

What is the gender of Vokabel, and why is it jede Vokabel and not jeder / jedes Vokabel?

Vokabel is feminine in German:

die Vokabel – singular
die Vokabeln – plural

The determiner jede must match the gender, number, and case of the noun:

masculine nominative singular: jeder (jeder Tisch)
neuter nominative singular: jedes (jedes Buch)
feminine nominative singular: jede (jede Vokabel)

In the sentence, Jede Vokabel is the subject in the nominative singular, and Vokabel is feminine, so jede is the only correct form.

What’s the difference between Vokabel, Wort, and Vokabular?

They all relate to “word” or “vocabulary,” but they’re used differently.

die Vokabel
A “vocabulary item,” especially in the context of language learning.
Examples:
- eine neue Vokabel lernen – to learn a new vocab item
- Vokabeltest – vocabulary test
das Wort (Plural: die Wörter / die Worte)
The general word for “word.”
- die Wörter – separate words (dictionary-style)
  - 100 neue Wörter lernen – learn 100 new words
- die Worte – a more figurative/poetic plural (“words” as utterances)
  - seine letzten Worte – his last words
das Vokabular
The set of words someone knows or that belong to a field.
- ein umfangreiches Vokabular haben – to have a large vocabulary
- das technische Vokabular – the technical vocabulary

In the sentence, Vokabel fits well because it’s exactly about individual items in a learner’s vocabulary.

Why is it mit mehreren Bedeutungen and not something like mit mehrere Bedeutungen?

The phrase mit mehreren Bedeutungen is governed by two rules:

The preposition mit
- mit always takes the dative case.
- die Bedeutung (sg) → die Bedeutungen (nom/acc pl)
  but dative plural is den Bedeutungen.
Adjective declension in dative plural
- In dative plural, adjectives take -en:
  - mit neuen Bedeutungen
  - mit vielen Bedeutungen
  - mit mehreren Bedeutungen

So:

mehreren = dative plural form of mehrere.
The full structure: mit + dative → mit mehreren Bedeutungen.

Saying mit mehrere Bedeutungen would miss the necessary -n ending and is grammatically wrong.

What exactly does mehreren mean here? How is it different from vielen or manchen?

All three are quantifiers, but with different nuances:

mehrere = “several, more than two, an unspecified number larger than two,” neutral in tone.
- mit mehreren Bedeutungen – with several meanings
viele = “many,” suggests a relatively large number.
- mit vielen Bedeutungen – with many meanings
manche = “some,” more vague and less about quantity.
- mit manchen Bedeutungen – with some meanings (not all)

In this sentence, mehreren underlines that the word has multiple meanings without saying it has a particularly large number.

Why is it für mich and not zu mir or mir alone?

für is the natural preposition here, and it always uses the accusative:

ich (nominative)
mich (accusative)
mir (dative)

für means “for (the benefit, from the perspective of)”:

für mich – for me / to me (in my eyes)
für dich – for you
für uns – for us

So:

ist für mich etwas … – “is, for me, something … / is something … to me.”

zu mir would mean “to me” in a physical or directional sense (come to me, say to me), which doesn’t fit.
Just mir without a preposition would require a verb or construction that takes the dative by itself (e.g. es ist mir wichtig) – that would be a different sentence structure.

How should I parse etwas besonders Wichtiges? What does each word do?

etwas besonders Wichtiges is a compact structure with three elements:

etwas
- an indefinite pronoun, neuter
- means “something, a somewhat undefined thing.”
besonders
- an adverb here, modifying the adjective wichtig
- means “especially, particularly.”
Wichtiges
- an adjective used as a noun (nominalized), with an -es ending
- literally “(something) important,” or more naturally, “something important (thing).”

Put together:

etwas (something)
besonders (especially)
Wichtiges (important thing)

So the whole phrase means roughly:
“something particularly important (to me).”

Why is Wichtiges capitalized? Could I write wichtiges with a small w?

Here Wichtiges is an adjective that’s being used as a noun, a nominalized adjective. In German, such nominalizations are capitalized:

etwas Neues – something new
nichts Gutes – nothing good
alles Mögliche – all sorts of things
etwas Besonderes – something special
etwas Wichtiges – something important

Because Wichtiges is acting like a noun (“an important thing”), it must be written with a capital W.

Writing etwas besonders wichtiges (lowercase) is considered incorrect in standard German.

Why is the ending -es on Wichtiges? Why not -e / -en / -er?

The ending comes from strong adjective declension after an indefinite pronoun like etwas, which behaves like a neuter noun here.

Pattern (strong declension, neuter, nominative/accusative singular):

etwas Gutes
nichts Neues
viel Spannendes
etwas Wichtiges

So:

etwas is treated as a neuter pronoun.
Neuter nominative/accusative singular with strong declension takes -es.

That’s why it’s Wichtiges:

neuter
nominative (it’s part of the predicate, referring back to Jede Vokabel via the general “something” idea)
strong declension → -es

Why is it besonders Wichtiges and not besondere Wichtiges?

Here besonders is an adverb, and Wichtiges is the adjective/noun. Compare:

besonders wichtig – especially important (adverb + adjective)
eine besondere Sache – a special thing (adjective + noun)

In the sentence:

besonders modifies wichtig (how important? → especially important)
wichtig then appears in its nominalized form Wichtiges.

So the structure is:

etwas (something)
besonders (especially)
Wichtiges (important thing)

If you said etwas besondere Wichtiges, you’d be trying to treat besondere as an adjective before a noun, but there is no separate noun there; Wichtiges itself is the noun. That combination is ungrammatical.

Could I say … ist für mich besonders wichtig instead of … ist für mich etwas besonders Wichtiges? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Jede Vokabel mit mehreren Bedeutungen ist für mich besonders wichtig.

This is fully correct, but the nuance changes:

… ist für mich besonders wichtig.
– simple predicate adjective: “is especially important to me.”
– Focus on the degree of importance.
… ist für mich etwas besonders Wichtiges.
– noun-like phrasing: “is something particularly important (a particularly important thing) to me.”
– It sounds a bit more emphatic and stylistic, almost like saying:
- “Each such vocab item is a kind of particularly important thing for me.”

So the original is slightly more expressive and “weighty” than just besonders wichtig.

Why is etwas needed at all? Could you just say … ist für mich besonders Wichtiges?

You need etwas (or a similar pronoun like nichts, viel, alles) when you use this adjective-as-noun pattern:

Correct patterns:

etwas Wichtiges – something important
nichts Neues – nothing new
viel Spannendes – a lot of exciting stuff

Without such a pronoun:

ist für mich besonders Wichtiges – feels incomplete and ungrammatical because Wichtiges is then “floating” without anything to anchor it.

So you either:

use a regular predicate adjective:
- ist für mich besonders wichtig

use the etwas + Adjektiv-es nominalization:
- ist für mich etwas besonders Wichtiges.

You can’t really mix them by dropping etwas.

Can the word order be changed? For example, can I move für mich or mit mehreren Bedeutungen?

Yes, German main clauses allow some flexibility as long as:

the finite verb stays in second position, and
the sentence remains clear.

Some natural variants:

Move für mich:
- Jede Vokabel mit mehreren Bedeutungen ist etwas besonders Wichtiges für mich.
- Für mich ist jede Vokabel mit mehreren Bedeutungen etwas besonders Wichtiges.
Move mit mehreren Bedeutungen a bit:
- Jede Vokabel ist für mich mit mehreren Bedeutungen etwas besonders Wichtiges.
  (possible but less natural; sounds like “with several meanings” belongs especially tightly with “für mich.”)

The original:

Jede Vokabel mit mehreren Bedeutungen ist für mich etwas besonders Wichtiges.

has a very natural information flow:

Subject + its description: Jede Vokabel mit mehreren Bedeutungen
Verb: ist
Perspective: für mich
Predicate: etwas besonders Wichtiges

That’s why it sounds especially idiomatic.