der/die/das Deutsche

[jzsuzsi]

I just want to share an interesting bit with you:

der Deutsche = the German man (a German person who is male)

die Deutsche = the German woman

das Deutsche = German, as the German language.

So pay attention to atricles! :)

Note: The German language can also be das Deutsch, for example in Ich spreche kein Deutsch. The difference between das Deutsche/das Deutsch is still not really clear to me, I found this: http://german.stackexchange.com/questions/8275/das-deutsch-or-das-deutsche

Note2: Der Deutsche has a weird declension, because it is a noun created from an adjective, so it kind of keeps adjective endings.

Nominative singular: Der Deutsche, ein Deutscher

Akkusative singular: Den Deutschen, einen Deutschen

Dative/genitive also ends with -en

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/zwiebelfisch/zwiebelfisch-wir-deutsche-oder-wir-deutschen-a-343920.html

Please correct me if anything is wrong :P

[AHA3006]

All correct!

In case you missed it: the Zwiebelfisch article lists a couple of other words that behave similar. "der/die Blinde" (the blind (wo)man), "der/die/das Schöne" (the beautiful (wo)man / the beauty), "der/die Angestellte" (the employee), "der/die Alte" (the old (wo)man), "der/die Dumme" (the simpleton), "der/die Gefangene" (the prisoner), "der/die Untergebene" (the subordinate). There are more.

Thus, at least you need not learn all these forms for just one word.

[jzsuzsi]

I did not miss it, but thanks for the additional examples. I have a grammar book, and I came across this part yesterday, that's why I looked it up :)

[BuffDoge]

Hi. May I ask? I've just seen one of your links and found out that 'Das Deutsch' and 'Das Deutsche' have different meanings.

Is this rule only applied for 'Deutsch'? Not anything else? I was thinking like I can put 'Das Englisch' as in skill/knowledge in English skills and 'Das Englische' as the language itself?

[jzsuzsi]

I searched in on Duden, it says:

das Englisch:

1. englische Sprache
2. englische [und nordamerikanische] Sprache und Literatur als Unterrichts-, Lehrfach

das Englische: die englische Sprache im Allgemeinen

[Zzzzz...]

Thank you for this. If you are interested in adjectival nouns, I find this very helpful. :)

[jzsuzsi]

Danke schön :)

[HorazioVilches]

Check out this video about this subject
Https://youtu.be/OvC6_dvh4hI