1

Given the following sentence:

Das ist der perfekte Ort.

Why does perfekt end with an e? I thought that nouns following ist are in the nominative case and that an adjective following the definite article before the noun would not take an ending?

I know Ort is not in the accusative case because then perfekt would take en as in:

Er ging an den perfekten Ort.

So the fact it picks up an e in the first sentence confuses me. What do I need to update regarding my knowledge involving the declination of adjectives?

Arsak
  • 4,353
  • 1
  • 19
  • 34
Robert Oschler
  • 1,581
  • 14
  • 25
  • 4
    You are that it is nominative and also to take the article into account, but “no ending” is something that you must have misunderstood: https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Flexion:perfekt You can look up other adjectives to see that -e is not an exception either. – Carsten S May 23 '19 at 05:42
  • 1
    @CarstenS I guess you wanted to start you comment with "You are right that..." ? – Arsak May 23 '19 at 05:53
  • 1
    @Arsak, right, thanks. It is too late for an edit now. – Carsten S May 23 '19 at 06:02
  • 1
    @KilianFoth it is ein grosses* Meer* – Volker Landgraf May 23 '19 at 07:22
  • 2
    Sorry, fixed... Why would you think that the nominative case would not take an ending? It can take -e, -er, -en, -es ... in fact, most of the few endings we do have appear in the nominative: Der grosse See; ein grosser See; die grossen Seen; ein grosses Meer... – Kilian Foth May 23 '19 at 08:04
  • 1
    You might be mixing up some rules – the adjective has no ending in a construction like der Ort ist perfekt, but that's not what you have in your example. – DonHolgo May 23 '19 at 08:42
  • Possible duplicate of What is the simplest yet most exhaustive reference guide for German adjective/noun endings? – PiedPiper May 23 '19 at 09:01
  • 1
    @PiedPiper The linked post does answer my question, but does not have the additional and critical information as expressed the comments above, pointing out my misconception that adjectives in the Nominativ case do not take an ending. My incorrect understanding is pointed out by Carsten and DonHolgo's comments. So the linked answer does answer my question but only in the most passive way and therefore will not serve those who have the same problem as I did, despite being an excellent answer on German declination rules. – Robert Oschler May 23 '19 at 12:03

1 Answers1

6

You have misunderstood adjective declination.

Adjectives used before a noun are declined in every case (including the nominative). You can find a complete reference here.

Adjectives used as a predicate are not declined:

Der Ort ist perfekt.

PiedPiper
  • 4,438
  • 12
  • 29