Breakdown of Meine rechte Hand tut weh.
mein
my; (masculine or neuter, nominative)
die Hand
the hand
wehtun
to hurt
rechts
on the right
Questions & Answers about Meine rechte Hand tut weh.
Why is it meine and not mein?
Because Hand is a feminine noun in German: die Hand.
The possessive mein- changes its ending to match the noun’s gender, number, and case. In the nominative singular feminine, it becomes meine.
- mein Arm = my arm
- meine Hand = my hand
So meine rechte Hand is the correct form.
Why is it rechte and not rechter or rechts?
Because rechte is the adjective form that matches the noun phrase meine Hand.
In meine rechte Hand:
- meine already shows feminine nominative singular
- the adjective recht- takes the ending -e
So:
- die rechte Hand
- meine rechte Hand
By contrast:
- rechter would be used with some masculine forms
- rechts is usually an adverb, meaning on the right or to the right
Here, you need the adjective form rechte because it directly describes Hand.
Why is Hand capitalized?
In German, all nouns are capitalized.
So Hand gets a capital letter because it is a noun, just like:
- der Arm
- das Bein
- die Schulter
This is a standard rule in German spelling.