Der Hund ist fett.

to be

Breakdown of Der Hund ist fett.

• der Hund: the dog
• fett: bold

Questions & Answers about Der Hund ist fett.

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

German gives every noun a grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter.

• Hund is masculine, so in the nominative case (here, as the subject), it takes the article der.
• Feminine nouns would use die, and neuter nouns would use das in the nominative.

You simply have to learn the gender together with each noun:

• der Hund (masc.) – the dog
• die Katze (fem.) – the cat
• das Pferd (neut.) – the horse

Why is Hund capitalized?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, no matter where they appear in the sentence.

So you write:

• Der Hund ist fett.
• Ich sehe den Hund.

Even in the middle of a sentence, Hund stays capitalized because it is a noun. Adjectives like fett and verbs like ist are not capitalized (unless they begin a sentence or are part of a title).

Why doesn’t fett have an ending, like fetter or fette?