"Those are all good questions."

Translation: Das sind alles gute Fragen.

[georgewreid]

i tried 'das sind alles guten Fragen'

duolingo said "In nominative case, use "alle" for undefined nouns like "Fragen"
and then gave two correct solutions:
- Das sind alle guten Fragen.
- Das sind alles gute Fragen.

I am confused as to why 'alles gute' is equivalent to 'alle guten'.
Shouldn't only one of alle or alles be correct?
Shouldn't only one of gute or guten be the correct plural form?
Does using gute somehow make it not nominative and so require alles?
Is 'Das sind alles gute Fragen' actaully correct / accepted?

Danke

[amuroruma]

why not
"Diese sind alles gute Fragen"?

[greenfire315]

When is it guten for plural words and when is it gute? Danke!

[Hohenems]

For plural, it would be "guten" in weak and mixed inflection, regardless of case, and strong inflection with dative case. "What does all that mean?" you might be asking yourself (or maybe someone else that had the same question as you).

Strong inflection - there are no preceding articles (meaning no "der" or "ein" or possessive adjective like "sein")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension#Strong_inflection.5B6.5D.5B7.5D

Weak inflection - the preceding article is a definite article (a "der" word)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension#Weak_inflection.5B6.5D.5B7.5D

Mixed inflection - the preceding article is an indefinite article (an "ein" word) or a possessive adjective
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension#Mixed_inflection.5B6.5D

If you (anyone) needs to read up on cases, start here:
http://coerll.utexas.edu/gg/gr/cas_01.html

So for the Duo sentence, it is "alles gute Fragen" because it is plural, strong inflection (no preceding article), and nominative case.

Hope that helps!

[sarah_pdx]

To me, this is clearly "plural, weak inflection, nominative" because "alle" is an article (list of articles here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension#Definite_articles.5B1.5D). And in the weak inflection table they show "alle" as the article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension#Weak_inflection.5B6.5D.5B7.5D

I understand the "alle guten Fragen" version is correct. Why is "alles gute Fragen" also correct?

[Hohenems]

Hmm...you're going to need someone more educated than I. I'm lost and confused now. I was thinking "alles" was a pronoun here.

[wataya]

After this statement, everyone will have problems answering the original question since it implies that they consider themselves more educated than you :) So I'd like to make it clear that I don't want to imply this by trying to answer the question :)

[Hohenems]

Thanks for the explanation, sensei.
Your grammar education, German grammar education in particular, is leaps and bounds ahead of mine. I'm smart enough to know there are many smarter than I. ;-)

[wataya]

This is a bit complicated. The two sentences mean something slightly different:

• Das sind alle guten Fragen = These are all (the) good questions. (Here you have the totality of the set of good questions). "Alle" functions as an indefinite determiner

• Das sind alles gute Fragen = Das alles sind gute Fragen = Every question you raised is a good one. Here the function of "alles" is more that of an indefinite pronoun than that of a determiner. It becomes clearer if you use the equivalent second possible word order I gave above. The original word order is totally natural in German, but admittedly a bit surprising and confusing for non-natives.

See right at the bottom here:

http://is.gd/BA2Mr9

Hope that helps.

[sarah_pdx]

Thank you! Your reply and the link are helpful.

[KatherineAmabel]

I found a great link for working out how to decline adjectives (only if they come before the noun). Unfortunately I can't find it but I did write down the questions you need to ask to work it out. I'm going to make up examples so I hope these are ok. :)

Does the object have an article?
No - add the 'der/dies word' ending to the adjective. So Junge without an article would become guter Junge (taking the er ending from dieser, as in dieser Junge).
Yes - next question

Is the article in its original form (or has it changed, eg der to den)?
No, it has changed - add -en to the adjective. Eine Frau isst einen guten Apfel.
Yes - next question

Is the article singular?
No - add -en to the adjective. Die zwei guten Fragen
Yes - next question

Does the article show gender? (It's not enough to just have ein, because that can be masc. or neuter)
No - add -er for masculine nouns, -es for neuter nouns. ein guter Junge/ein gutes Kind
Yes - add -e. die gute Frau.

There - hope I got that all right and it's useful enough!

UPDATE: I found the original link http://www.nthuleen.com/teach/grammar/adjektivendungenexpl.html

[greenfire315]

It would not be Der guter Junge but Der gute Junge. If there is a "der" word, the adjective just has an "e". Subscribe to this channel and watch this video. This guy is a really good teacher. http://youtu.be/TaPQjxu3ltM

[KatherineAmabel]

Yes sorry, of course! I used der specifically in an example of what to do when there shouldn't be an article! I'll fix it now. :)

[MacielMesa]

hello