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I came across this sentence in Der Spiegel:

Sie betonte jedoch, die Geldpolitik folge keinem vorgegebenem Kurs.

Should not the sentence read vorgegebenen Kurs?

Jan
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Eugene Str.
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  • @Em1 Sorry to ask you about this, but how did you place the quoted sentence against yellowish background? – Eugene Str. Feb 11 '16 at 11:29
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    "> Sie betonte jedoch..." see formatting option: "blockquote" – Iris Feb 11 '16 at 11:46
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    Just click "edit" and take a look at what the "code" looks like. Or use the "help" button while editing. Or believe Iris. ;) – Em1 Feb 11 '16 at 13:38
  • I vote to believe Iris. Sounds safest xD – Jan Feb 12 '16 at 00:12
  • @chirlu: The two questions you saw as other-language duplicates are not. In this case, we don’t have two adjectives but rather an adjective and a pseudo-article (for want of a better word). This invalidates the answers given to the other question. – Jan Feb 12 '16 at 00:21
  • @Jan: Well, you can argue that they are different. However, the end result (fluctuant use of -en or -em for the adjective in second position) is the same; a few Google searches as evidence: "keinem anderem", "keinem großem", "keinem besonderem". – chirlu Feb 12 '16 at 08:48
  • @chirlu The end result is not the same. The other post argues that the same ending on both adjectives is possible and correct, as is mixed declination. So I can have Weißwürscht mit echtem bayerischem* Senf* or Weißwürscht mit echtem bayerischen* Senf. With kein*, however, the other option is not possible, so linking the two questions together does more harm than good. – Jan Feb 13 '16 at 17:41

2 Answers2

7

Kein is an indefinite pronoun that functions as an article would. And it has almost the same effects on adjectives following it as articles have.

When standing alone, adjectives use the strong inflection:

  • Vorgegebener Kurs
  • Vorgegebenen Kurses
  • Vorgegebenem Kurs
  • Vorgegebenen Kurs

When preceeded by a definite article, weak inflection is used:

  • der vorgegebene Kurs
  • des vorgegebenen Kurses
  • dem vorgegebenen Kurs
  • den vorgegebenen Kurs

With indefinite pronouns and articles, a mixed inflection is used which marks the nominative on the adjective and all other cases on the pronoun article:

  • kein vorgegebener Kurs
  • keines vorgegebenen Kurses
  • keinem vorgegebenen Kurs
  • keinen vorgegebenen Kurs

Therefore, the only correct way to write it would have been:

Sie betonte jedoch, die Geldpolitik folge keinem vorgegebenen Kurs.

Glorfindel
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Jan
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6

I would indeed agree that it should read

... keinem vorgegebenen Kurs

This goes along the lines of

... steht in keinem vernünftigen Verhältnis
... aus keinem offensichtlichen Grund

Thorsten Dittmar
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