Der Angeklagte spricht mit der Verteidigung.

Because in German, all nouns are capitalized.

That includes:

• ordinary nouns like Verteidigung,
• and words that originally come from adjectives or participles but are used as nouns, like Angeklagte.

So Angeklagte is capitalized here because it means the accused person / the defendant, not just accused as an adjective.

In this sentence, it functions as a noun.

More exactly, it is a nominalized adjective/participle:

• the verb is anklagen = to accuse / charge
• angeklagt = accused
• der Angeklagte = the accused man / the defendant

German does this a lot:

• der Deutsche = the German man
• der Bekannte = the acquaintance
• der Angeklagte = the defendant

So it comes from an adjective-like form, but here it behaves like a noun.

Because after the definite article der, a masculine nominative singular adjective-like word takes the ending -e.

So:

• der Angeklagte = masculine, nominative, singular

This is the same pattern as:

• der gute Mann
• der alte Freund
• der Deutsche

Since Angeklagte is a nominalized adjective, it follows adjective endings.

For comparison:

• der Angeklagte = nominative
• den Angeklagten = accusative
• dem Angeklagten = dative

Because mit always takes the dative case.

The noun Verteidigung is feminine, so its article changes like this:

• nominative: die Verteidigung
• accusative: die Verteidigung
• dative: der Verteidigung

So:

• mit der Verteidigung = with the defense

This is one reason German articles can feel confusing: der does not always mean masculine nominative. Here it is feminine dative singular.

Because many feminine singular nouns in German do not change their form in the dative. The case is often shown only by the article.

So:

• die Verteidigung
• der Verteidigung

The noun stays Verteidigung; only the article changes from die to der.

In a legal context like this, die Verteidigung usually means the defense side, often understood as:

• the defense lawyer,
• the defense counsel,
• or the defense team.

It does not usually mean the abstract idea of defense here.

If you want to refer clearly to one defense lawyer, German often uses:

• der Verteidiger = male defense lawyer
• die Verteidigerin = female defense lawyer

So this sentence sounds like the defendant is speaking with the defense / defense counsel.

Spricht is the 3rd person singular present tense of sprechen.

So it can mean:

• speaks
• is speaking
• sometimes talks, depending on context

German simple present often covers both English simple present and present progressive.

So:

• Der Angeklagte spricht mit der Verteidigung. can mean either
• The defendant speaks with the defense. or
• The defendant is speaking with the defense.

Because German commonly says mit jemandem sprechen = to speak with someone / talk to someone.

So:

• mit der Verteidigung sprechen = to speak with the defense

The person you are speaking with is introduced by mit, not by a direct object.

Compare:

• Er spricht mit dem Richter. = He is speaking with the judge.
• Er spricht über den Fall. = He is speaking about the case.

So mit shows the conversation partner.

This is a normal German main clause, and the finite verb is in second position.

Structure:

• Der Angeklagte = subject
• spricht = finite verb
• mit der Verteidigung = prepositional phrase

So the pattern is:

Subject + verb + other information

German main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb comes second.

You could also move another element to the front for emphasis:

• Mit der Verteidigung spricht der Angeklagte.

That is still grammatical because spricht remains in second position.

Yes. Nouns ending in -ung are almost always feminine in German.

So this is a very useful vocabulary pattern:

• die Meinung
• die Zeitung
• die Regierung
• die Verteidigung

So if you learn a new noun ending in -ung, it is usually safe to assume its article is die in the nominative singular.

Then you would say:

Die Angeklagte spricht mit der Verteidigung.

What changes:

• der Angeklagte → die Angeklagte

That is because the nominalized adjective changes to match gender and case.

Compare:

• der Angeklagte = the male defendant
• die Angeklagte = the female defendant

The rest of the sentence stays the same:

• spricht mit der Verteidigung