Questions & Answers about Die Note ist befriedigend.
In German every noun has a fixed grammatical gender that you just have to learn.
Note (meaning grade/mark or musical note) is feminine, so it always takes the article die in the nominative singular:
- die Note – the grade / the note
- eine Note – a grade / a note
The plural is die Noten (same article form, different meaning because of the plural ending):
- die Noten – the grades / the notes
So der Note and das Note are wrong in the nominative; der Note can appear only in the dative singular (e.g. mit der Note – with the grade).
Both meanings exist, but in this sentence the natural interpretation (and the one typically taught) is:
- Note = school grade / exam mark
You can see this from befriedigend, which is a standard word used in the German grading system. When Germans talk about music, they also use Note, but then the adjective would usually be something like hoch, tief, falsch, richtig, etc., not befriedigend.
So here it’s talking about how good a school grade is, not about music.
German capitalization rules are different from English:
All nouns are capitalized.
- die Note → Note is a noun, so it’s capitalized.
Adjectives are normally not capitalized.
- befriedigend is an adjective here (describing the grade), so it stays lowercase.
Exception (useful to know): When the adjective itself is turned into a noun, it gets capitalized:
- ein Befriedigend bekommen – to get a “befriedigend” (a grade with that name)
In that case Befriedigend is treated like a noun, so it’s capitalized.
- ein Befriedigend bekommen – to get a “befriedigend” (a grade with that name)
This is a very common confusion.
German adjectives behave differently depending on their position:
Before a noun (attributive position):
Then they do take an ending:- eine befriedigende Note – a satisfactory grade
- die befriedigende Note – the satisfactory grade
After a form of “sein/werden/bleiben” (predicative position):
Then they do not take an ending:- Die Note ist befriedigend. – The grade is satisfactory.
- Die Note bleibt befriedigend. – The grade remains satisfactory.
In Die Note ist befriedigend, the adjective is in predicative position after ist, so it appears in its basic form without any extra ending.
Grammatically, it functions as an adjective in this sentence.
- Historically it comes from the present participle of the verb befriedigen (to satisfy), but in modern usage it’s a normal adjective, especially as a fixed term for a grade in the German school system.
- It behaves like any other adjective:
- Predicative: Die Note ist befriedigend.
- Attributive: eine befriedigende Note
So for learning purposes, you can treat befriedigend here simply as an adjective meaning a certain grade level.
It’s grammatically possible but stylistically odd and less likely in everyday speech.
Die Note ist befriedigend.
– Neutral, normal way to evaluate an already known grade.Die befriedigende Note ist …
– Grammatically OK, but now befriedigende is attributive and part of the noun phrase.
– It sounds like you’re distinguishing this particular “satisfactory grade” from other possible grades, for example in a longer explanation.
Most of the time, when simply commenting on how good a grade is, Germans say:
- Die Note ist befriedigend.
No, not in standard German.
Countable singular nouns like Note usually need some kind of determiner:
- Die Note ist befriedigend. – The grade is satisfactory.
- Eine Note ist befriedigend. – A grade is satisfactory. (more general statement, sounds unusual out of context)
Without an article, Note ist befriedigend sounds ungrammatical. Singular Note needs die, eine, a possessive (meine Note) or another determiner.
Both can be translated with a similar English word, but they’re used differently:
befriedigend
- A fixed technical term in the German school grading system.
- On the usual 1–6 scale:
1 = sehr gut, 2 = gut, 3 = befriedigend, 4 = ausreichend, 5 = mangelhaft, 6 = ungenügend. - Very common when talking about official grades.
zufriedenstellend
- A general adjective meaning “satisfactory” / “acceptable”, not tied to a specific grade label.
- You can say Das Ergebnis ist zufriedenstellend, but you wouldn’t usually use it as the official name of a grade.
So in the context of school marks, befriedigend is the more natural word.
The word order follows the standard verb-second (V2) rule for main clauses in German:
- Die Note – first position (subject)
- ist – second position (finite verb)
- befriedigend – rest of the sentence (predicate adjective)
You can also front the adjective phrase for emphasis:
- Befriedigend ist die Note.
This is grammatically correct but sounds marked; it emphasizes befriedigend (for example, in contrast to gut or sehr gut).
Neutral, everyday word order is:
- Die Note ist befriedigend.
Approximate pronunciation:
Note → [ˈnoːtə]
- Two syllables: NO-te
- The o is long, like in English no, but without the diphthong.
- Final -e is a short, unstressed -uh sound.
befriedigend → roughly [bəˈfʁiːdɪɡənt]
- Syllables: be–FRI–di–gent
- Main stress on fri: be-FRI-di-gend
- frie like English free
- Final -end is unstressed; the g is a plain [g] sound, not [dʒ] as in English judge.
You don’t have to be perfect with the exact phonetics; focusing on the stress pattern (NO-te, be-FRI-di-gend) and avoiding an English “note” sound for Note already helps a lot.