 Weak nouns existed in Old English as well. Notice how closely the declension of the OE word nama (name) resembles the modern German weak noun Name:
In fact, both German and English, as many of the other Germanic languages, had a system of noun inflection. In both languages, the inflections were eventually lost, absorbed into the noun root, or transferred to the article. The weak nouns are hence among the last remnants of the older system of usage. Books Search for
German grammar books at amazon: 
Some adjectival nouns are
formed from the past participles of verbs, which are sometimes used as adjectives in German. For example: fangen = to catch gefangen = caught der/die Gefangene = prisoner anstellen = to hire, employ angestellt = employed der/die Angestellte = employee The same is true of present participles, which are formed in German by adding a -d suffix to the verb infinitive. For example: reisen = to travel reisend = traveling der/die Reisende = traveler stehen = to stand stehend = standing der/die Stehende = person who is standing Alles Gute!
is a common adjectival noun phrase that is used to wish someone well. It essentially means Best wishes! The convention of
capitalizing nouns in German became standardized in the mid-18th century with Johann Christoph Gottscheds Grundlegung einer deutschen Sprachkunst (1748). |
German nounsWeak nouns & nouns from adjectives and verb infinitivesIdentifying
nouns | Nouns and gender
| Gender patterns | Nouns
with 2 genders | Compound
nouns
Plural forms | Plural patterns | Weak nouns | Adjectival nouns | Infinitive nouns | GRAMMAR INDEX Weak nouns / Masculine -n nounsWeak nouns, also called masculine n-nouns, are a group of masculine nouns in German that have a special declension. In addition to inflecting their article, these nouns themselves add an -en or -n ending (-n if the noun already ends in -e) in every case and number except the nominative singular.
Many of the weak nouns refer to people or animals: der Student, der Junge, der Herr, der Nachbar, der Franzose, der Elephant, der Hase, der Affe. Weak nouns that do not refer to people or animals, add an additional -s suffix in the genitive singular.
Most masculine -n nouns are easily identifiable. They are:
Within these rules, there are two anomalies, der Herr, which takes an -n ending in the singular declension forms and an -en in the plural forms, and das Herz, which is a neuter noun that takes on the masculine -n noun suffixes, except for in the accusative singular.
Identifying
nouns | Nouns and gender
| Gender patterns | Nouns
with 2 genders | Compound
nouns
Plural forms | Plural patterns | Weak nouns | Adjectival nouns | Infinitive nouns | GRAMMAR INDEX Adjectival nounsSome masculine and feminine nouns that designate people are sometimes formed from adjectives or participles used as adjectives. While it is possible to spontaneously create an adjectival noun as needed, some such nouns have become preferred designations for specific people or things.
Neuter nouns formed from adjectives refer to ideas, concepts, or abstractions.
Adjective nouns are always capitalized and take the same endings that they would have as adjectives.
Remember that adjective endings are determined by the case, gender, and number of the noun they describe. The same applies to adjective nouns, except that the gender of the adjectival noun depends on whether it refers to a male or female person or people or whether it refers to an abstract concept or idea.
When neuter adjective nouns follow the undeclinable indefinite pronouns etwas, nichts, viel, and wenig, they must take the strong adjective endings because these pronouns do not carry any case information. When the adjectival nouns follow the declinable pronoun alles, they take weak adjective endings because the pronoun alles is declined to carry the pertinent case information.
Identifying
nouns | Nouns and gender
| Gender patterns | Nouns
with 2 genders | Compound
nouns
Plural forms | Plural patterns | Weak nouns | Adjectival nouns | Infinitive nouns | GRAMMAR INDEX Infinitive nounsJust about any verb can be made into a noun by capitalizing the infinitive. Such nouns are always neuter and they usually correspond to the gerund (-ing) form in English.
Whereas English typically uses such gerunds without an article, German noun gerunds are often accompanied by the definite article.
Identifying nouns | Nouns and gender | Gender patterns | Nouns with 2 genders | Compound nouns Plural forms | Plural patterns | Weak nouns | Adjectival nouns | Infinitive nouns | GRAMMAR INDEX  All content on this site is copyrighted. © 2004- VISTAWIDE.COM Contact - About us |
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