Talk:German sentence structure

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It was me who did the edit 06:37, 19 March 2006 84.58.192.147 (→Relative clauses - "wo" in spoken language). I did not realise that i was not logged in anymore. --Thomasnimmesgern 06:40, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

At the moment, this reads like it belongs in "Wikibooks". Wikipedia is not a "how to guide" - the article could do with being "encyclopedized" i.e. descriptive not instructive. It certainly shouldn't contain "you", addressed to the reader! TheGrappler 18:11, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Asking for subject or object

"Du hast deiner Frau einen roten Ring gekauft" (You bought your wife a red ring) - "Welchen Roten hast du deiner Frau gekauft?" (Which red one did you buy your wife?) It seems to me that this question works in German only as the short form of "Welchen roten Ring hast du deiner Frau gekauft?", meaning "roten" would not be capitalized as "Ring" is simply omitted in speach. "Roten" capitalized suggests to me a name, at the most a wine. However, my Duden did not yield an answer as to which form would be correct. Can someone else please look it up and correct it if I'm right? --KagamiNoMiko 20:07, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

OK, I try to explain it. Capitalized or not You can use an adjectiv in German as a noun. But it depends on the structure of the whole text if it be written capitalized or not: ... roten Ring ... der rote ... Not capalized, because the word is used in the same paragraph or sentence.

... roter Ring... NEW PARAGRAPH ... der Rote ... Capitalized because of the new paragraph.

Why? I don't know! I learnd it that way in school.

Meaning and use of "Roten" This depends on the focus of the speaker. "Du hast deiner Frau einen roten Ring gekauft. Welchen roten hast du deiner Frau gekauft?" In this question it's important for the one who asked which sort of red ring was bought. Important here is the colour of the ring and that there were different sorts of red rings sold.

"Du hast deiner Frau einen roten Ring gekauft. Welchen hast du gekauft?" Here the colour is unimportant only the sort is of interest.

• Yes, but see, you asked "Welchen roten..." - uncapitalized - too! If you don't know you're talking about a ring, the question simply makes no sense. If you somehow only caught part of the sentence, only knowing about a red something, you'd ask "Du hast deiner Frau einen roten was gekauft?" (Which probably is not a grammatically correct sentence, but it is used like this.) Argh, I need a grammar book... I'm going on instinct here, and though my instinct is usually right when it comes to spelling and grammar, that is not always the case... Anyway, I think the question here is: Are we dealing with an adjectiv or a noun (Adjektiv oder substantiviertes Adjektiv)? --KagamiNoMiko 07:26, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
• ETA: My sister suggested the question "Was hast du deiner Frau Rotes gekauft?", which would indeed be the question to ask if you had no information about the object other than its color. --KagamiNoMiko 19:04, 20 September 2006 (UTC)