Die Straße ist gerade.

The street is straight.

Breakdown of Die Straße ist gerade.

• sein: to be
• die Straße: the street
• gerade: straight

Questions & Answers about Die Straße ist gerade.

Why is it die Straße and not der Straße or das Straße?

German nouns have grammatical gender that you simply have to learn with each noun. Straße is grammatically feminine, so its article in the nominative singular is die.

• die Straße = feminine, nominative singular (subject of the sentence)
• If it were masculine, it would be der, and if neuter, das.

You will always see Straße in dictionaries with the article die, which tells you its gender: die Straße (f.).

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How do you pronounce Straße, especially the ß?

Straße is pronounced approximately like SHTRAH-seh:

• Str at the beginning is pronounced ʃtr (like sht
  • r)
• a is long: aː, as in father
• ß is like an unvoiced s (as in class, not like z)
• The final e is a reduced sound (schwa), like the e in the (when unstressed)

In IPA: [ˈʃtʁaːsə].

So ß is just a strong s sound; there is no b sound in it.

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