Questions & Answers about Dein Kompliment macht mich fröhlich.
Why is it Dein Kompliment and not Deine Kompliment or Deinen Kompliment?
Kompliment is a neuter noun in German: das Kompliment.
In the sentence Dein Kompliment macht mich fröhlich, Kompliment is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case, singular, neuter.
The possessive dein- declines like this in the nominative:
- masculine singular: dein (dein Freund)
- neuter singular: dein (dein Kompliment)
- feminine singular: deine (deine Schwester)
- plural (all genders): deine (deine Freunde, deine Komplimente)
So for a neuter nominative singular noun you must say dein Kompliment, not deine or deinen.
Deinen would be accusative masculine singular (e.g. Ich sehe deinen Freund).
Why is Kompliment capitalized but fröhlich is not?
In German:
All nouns are capitalized.
So Kompliment is capitalized because it is a noun.Adjectives and verbs are not capitalized, unless:
- they start the sentence, or
- they are turned into nouns (nominalized), e.g. das Fröhliche.
In Dein Kompliment macht mich fröhlich, fröhlich is just a normal adjective describing the state of mich, so it stays lowercase.