Log inSign up

Meine Schwester macht eine Suppe aus Linsen und Blumenkohl.

Meine Schwester macht eine Suppe aus Linsen und Blumenkohl.
My sister is making a soup from lentils and cauliflower.
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching German grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning German now

Questions & Answers about Meine Schwester macht eine Suppe aus Linsen und Blumenkohl.

Why is it Meine Schwester and not Mein Schwester?

Because Schwester is a feminine noun.

The word mein changes its ending depending on the noun’s gender, number, and case. Here, Schwester is:

  • feminine
  • singular
  • the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative

That gives you meine Schwester.

Compare:

  • mein Bruder = my brother
  • meine Schwester = my sister
  • mein Kind = my child
  • meine Schwestern = my sisters

Also, Meine is capitalized here only because it is the first word of the sentence.

Why is it eine Suppe and not ein Suppe or einen Suppe?

Because Suppe is a feminine noun.

It is also the direct object of macht, so it is in the accusative case. For feminine singular nouns, the indefinite article is eine in both nominative and accusative.

So:

  • nominative: eine Suppe
  • accusative: eine Suppe

Compare with a masculine noun:

  • ein Salat = a salad
  • Ich mache einen Salat. = I’m making a salad.

That is why you get eine Suppe here.

What exactly does macht mean in this sentence?

Here, macht means makes or is making / prepares.

The verb machen is very common in German and can mean to do or to make, depending on context. In this sentence, it clearly means make/prepare.

macht is the 3rd person singular form:

  • ich mache
  • du machst
  • er/sie/es macht

So Meine Schwester macht ... = My sister makes / is making ...

Why does German use aus here?

Aus means out of or made from here.

So eine Suppe aus Linsen und Blumenkohl means a soup made from lentils and cauliflower.

This is a very common use of aus when talking about:

  • material: ein Tisch aus Holz = a table made of wood
  • ingredients: Suppe aus Tomaten = soup made from tomatoes

It focuses on what something is made from.

Could I say mit instead of aus?

Sometimes yes, but the meaning changes a little.

  • Suppe aus Linsen und Blumenkohl = soup made from lentils and cauliflower
  • Suppe mit Linsen und Blumenkohl = soup with lentils and cauliflower in it

So:

  • aus emphasizes the main ingredients / composition
  • mit emphasizes that those things are included

In many real-life contexts, both are possible, but aus is a better match if you want to stress what the soup is made from.

Why are there no articles before Linsen and Blumenkohl?

Because German often leaves out articles when talking about ingredients or substances in a general way.

So aus Linsen und Blumenkohl means from lentils and cauliflower in general, not from some specific lentils and a specific cauliflower already known to the listener.

If you wanted to make them specific, you could add articles:

  • aus den Linsen und dem Blumenkohl

That would sound more like:

  • out of the lentils and the cauliflower
Does aus take the dative case? If so, why can’t I really see it here?

Yes. Aus always takes the dative.

That is an important rule:

  • aus + dative

In this sentence, the dative is not very visible because there are no articles before the nouns.

If you add articles, you can see the dative clearly:

  • aus den Linsen
  • aus dem Blumenkohl

Without articles:

  • Linsen already looks the same as the plural noun form you would expect here
  • Blumenkohl also does not visibly change in this kind of article-less phrase

So the case is still dative, even though the noun forms do not change much on the surface.

Why is Linsen plural, but Blumenkohl singular?

Because that is how these ingredients are commonly conceptualized.

Linsen is usually used in the plural when talking about lentils as food. English does something similar: we usually say lentils, not a lentil when talking about the ingredient in general.

Blumenkohl, on the other hand, is often treated like a more general ingredient noun, similar to how English can say cauliflower without making it plural.

So:

  • Linsen = lentils
  • Blumenkohl = cauliflower

This combination sounds natural in German.

Would kocht be better than macht?

Both are possible, but they are not exactly identical.

  • Meine Schwester macht eine Suppe ... = My sister is making/preparing a soup ...
  • Meine Schwester kocht eine Suppe ... = My sister is cooking a soup ...

Kocht is more specific to the cooking process and may sound slightly more precise here.
Macht is more general and very common in everyday German for preparing food.

So macht is not wrong at all; it is natural spoken German.

Why is the verb in the second position?

Because German main clauses usually follow the V2 rule: the finite verb comes in the second position.

In this sentence:

  • Meine Schwester = first element
  • macht = second element

Then the rest follows:

  • eine Suppe aus Linsen und Blumenkohl

You can change what comes first, but the verb still stays second:

  • Heute macht meine Schwester eine Suppe aus Linsen und Blumenkohl.
  • Aus Linsen und Blumenkohl macht meine Schwester eine Suppe.

That is a core German word-order rule.

Why are Schwester, Suppe, Linsen, and Blumenkohl capitalized?

Because all nouns are capitalized in German.

That is why you see:

  • Schwester
  • Suppe
  • Linsen
  • Blumenkohl

This is different from English, where common nouns are usually lowercase.

Also note:

  • Meine is capitalized here only because it is at the beginning of the sentence
  • in the middle of a sentence, it would be meine

For example:

  • Ich kenne meine Schwester.