How do adjectives become nouns in German?
Did you know that adjectives can become nouns in German? After reading this article, you will know how to recognize and form them.
Recommended study materials on the topic:
A-Grammar: Practice German grammar (incl. answers)
German self-study book for A1-B1 (incl. answers)
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3 ways adjectives become nouns in German
In this article, we will discuss the three most common ways that you can use to let adjectives become nouns in German and how you can use them.
1. Using indefinite pronouns
Using indefinite pronouns like: “viel, wenig, etwas, genug” or “manches” cause the following adjectives to become nouns in German and therefore need to be written with a capital letter. If, for example, you would like to say, “There is much new” in German, it would be “Es gibt viel Neues.”
2. Adding “das”
Another possibility of how adjectives become nouns in German is adding a “das” and an “-e” as an Ending like: “neu – das Neue”, “alt – das Alte,” “teuer – das Teuere” etc.
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3. Adding the suffixes -heit, -keit, -igkeit and -tum
Adding a suffix is another way to let adjectives become nouns in German. Suffixes are endings that form nouns when you add them. Even though they do follow a pattern and rules, which will be explained in the following, trying to create their own nouns or adjectives might still be a bit tricky. But knowing that these suffixes can be used to form a noun out of an adjective gives you the possibility of a better understanding of the context and the noun itself if it is, for example, unknown to you. In some cases, you can form adjectives from nouns. There are also rules about their gender which you can read in the article “The idea of gender in German”.
The following are:
-heit:
You can find this ending in nouns based on an adjective or another noun. If used with an adjective, the adjective will:
end with -en or –ern as in “trocken” and “die Trockenheit!”,
mostly be monosyllabic (inseparable) as in “schön” and “die Schönheit”
if polysyllabic (separable), it has an emphasis on the end of the adjective, as in “gesund” and “die Gesundheit”
-keit:
These nouns are based on adjectives, and the ending applies to the following cases:
The ending “-bar” (in English this is -able) always geta a “-keit”: “furchtbar” = “die Furchtbarkeit”
Adjectives with the ending “-ig” always get a “-keit”: “flüssig” = “die Flüssigkeit”
Adjectives with the ending “-isch” always get a “-keit”: “mürrisch” = “die Mürrischkeit”
Adjectives with the ending “-lich” always get a “-keit”: “ehrlich” = “die Ehrlichkeit”
Adjectives with the ending “-sam” always get a “-keit”: “achtsam” = “die Achtsamkeit”
Adjectives with the unstressed ending “-el” get a “-keit”: “eitel” = “die Eitelkeit”
Adjectives with the unstressed ending “-er” mostly get a “-keit”: “eitel” = “die Eitelkeit”
-igkeit:
These nouns are based on adjectives or nouns, and the ending applies to the following adjective cases:
Adjectives with the ending “-los” (-less in English) always get a “-igkeit”: “arbeitslos” = “die Arbeitslosigkeit”
Adjectives with the ending “-haft” always get a “-igkeit”: “schmerzhaft” = “die Schmerzhaftigkeit”
-tum:
These nouns are based on adjectives or nouns but mainly refer to nouns. Mostly, already a bit older adjectives use this ending, and it is not common to use it anymore to form new nouns from adjectives these days. Anyhow, an example of its usage is:
“eigen” – “das Eigentum”
Now that you better understand how adjectives become nouns in German, you can use your new skill in your next conversation!
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