Adjectival Nouns: Grammar Page

The second group of special nouns are called adjectival nouns. These nouns are based on adjectives.

In English, we turn some adjectives into nouns, but these are usually abstract, referring to the ideal of the quality the adjective implies: the good, the true, the beautiful. In German, any adjective can be turned into a neuter noun that expresses the abstract idea, by using the definite article and capitalizing the adjective:

English also turns adjectives into nouns as collectives, referring to a group of people who have that quality the adjective expresses: the young, the poor. In German, one can use the plural for collectives:

But remember that German adjectives have something English adjectives do not have, namely, gender. This makes them much more flexible in creating nouns that refer to specific persons that have the quality the adjective expresses. They can refer to a man, or a woman, singular or plural, definite or indefinite. The masculine plural is used to refer to groups of mixed gender. The neuter singular may also be used in some cases, but there is no neuter plural.

Examples:

As you see, these nouns are almost like adjectives that have lost their nouns. The nouns they modify are gone, though in English we would have to add the noun back to translate the word: those sick people, no foreign women, a new kid. We do have a few nouns like this to refer to a man of a particular type, though: the stranger.

Which set of endings do you use to make a noun from an adjective? Now for the complicated part: The endings are like those of the adjectives. The form you use depends on the presence or absence of the definite or indefinite article (or rather of the der-words and the ein-words).

This is how their declension looks:

Adjectival Noun with definite article (or der-word, or plural ein-word)

Singular	Masc.	Fem.	Neuter
Nom. Dat. Acc. Gen.	der Bekannte dem Bekannten den Bekannten des Bekannten	die Bekannte der Bekannten die Bekannte der Bekannten	das Bekannte dem Bekannten das Bekannte des Bekannten
Plural	Same for all genders
Nom. Dat. Acc. Gen.	die Bekannten den Bekannten die Bekannten der Bekannten		(none)

Adjectival Noun with indefinite article (or ein-word, in singular)

Nom. Dat. Acc. Gen.	ein Bekannter einem Bekannten einen Bekannten eines Bekannten	eine Bekannte einer Bekannten eine Bekannte einer Bekannten	ein Bekanntes einem Bekannten ein Bekanntes eines Bekannten
Plural (no article) For all genders is Bekannte
Nom. Dat. Acc. Gen.	Bekannte Bekannten Bekannte Bekannter		(none)

German allows the transformation of many adjectives into nouns, as one needs them. However, there is a group of adjectival nouns that made it into the dictionary. They are officially accepted as nouns, not just as transformed adjectives. Some of these nouns are:

• der, die Bekannte (acquaintance)
• der, die Gläubige (faithful, believer)
• der, die Deutsche (German)
• der, die Fremde (stranger, foreigner)
• der, die Verwandte (relative)
• der, die Kranke (patient, sick person)
• der, die Blinde (blind person)
• der, die Gefangene (prisoner)
• der, die Kleine (a small person)
• der, die Abgeordnete ( representative)
• der, die Angeklagte (defendant)
• der, die Angestellte (employee)

Variations

Culturally interesting is the restriction to the masculine of the following adjectival nouns:

Since they are semantically linked to feminine nouns, the following adjectival nouns are only used in their feminine form:

For the same reason, some adjectival nouns are only neuter:

When one is using the adjective to refer back to a thing that has just been specified, simply to avoid repeating it, the adjective is not capitalized:

In these cases, the German adjectives remain adjectives.

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