Wie alt?

Hi Paul, In lesson 15.1 Mathias tells Sandra the ages of his niece and nephew.....Die Große is acht Jahre alt, und der Kleine ist fünf. Sarah explains that you can tell that the elder child is a girl because of the article used and the ending. So why isn't the younger child described as der Kleiner? I'm probably missing something quite simple, but I'm three lessons past here now and it's still bothering me. Alles gute Shannon

Hello Shannon, If you use the nouns with their articels "der, die" or "das" the gender of the adjectives don't change. Der kleine Mann->der Kleine, die kleine Astronautin->die Kleine, das kleine Haus->das Kleine. If the article is missing the adjective must show the gender of the noun. "Kleiner Junge, wie alt bist du?". "Kleiner, wie alt bist du?" I hope this helps! :) Lieben Gruß, Paul

Not exactly......in this case adjectives are being used as nouns. Aren't the missing nouns either "Kind", or "Mädchen" & "Junge"? If the noun is der Junge, that would explain why it's der Kleine for the boy, but then I would expect the girl to be Das Große. I'm still confused and my head is going 'round and 'round in circles. :) Maybe I should just accept it as "one of those things". Alles gute Shannon

Above I gave examples with adjectives that are being used as nouns. You recognise a noun when it starts with a capital letter. Der kleine Mann->der Kleine, die kleine Frau->die Kleine, das kleine Haus->das Kleine. Das große Mädchen->das Große. Adjectives describing a noun that has a definite article (the equivalent of the) take what we can call weak endings, as the information about case and gender are already expressed through the article. Maybe you should read chapter 11.8.Adjectives Endings again. Alles Gute Paul

Hallo Paul Jetzt verstehe ich! I was trying to match the article with the implied noun instead of leaving the sentence structure alone and just omitting the noun. Thanks for putting me straight! Alles Gute Die Blöde :P

No Problem Shannon! I am here to help you. :)