Turning adjectives into nouns
Reminder: In German, adjectives start with a lower case letter, while all nouns start with a capital letter.
Das Hotel ist alt.
The hotel is old.
You can turn adjectives into nouns. These start with a capital letter.
Das Leben ist schön. (schön = Adjektiv)
Life is beautiful. (schön (beautiful) = adjective)
Das Schöne im Leben (das Schöne = Nomen)
The beauty of life (das Schöne (beauty)= noun)
The adjective becomes a noun when it comes immediately after an article (der, die, das, etc.) and there is no noun immediately after it.
das gute Leben aber das Gute im Leben
the good life / the good things in life
It is especially common to turn adjectives into nouns after words like etwas (something), nichts (nothing), wenig (few) and viel (lots).
etwas Altes, etwas Neues und etwas Blaues
something old, something new and something blue
im Westen nichts Neues
All Quiet on the Western Front (literally "nothing new in the west")
viel Gutes und wenig Schlechtes
lots of good things, few bad things
Notes:
- You have to add an ‑es ending to nouns created from adjectives after the words etwas (something), nichts (nothing), wenig, (few) or viel (lots).
Ich lerne viel Neues.
I'm learning lots of new things.
- The same rules apply as for adjective endings when there is no article. Adjektivdeklination 3
Neues planen
to plan something new
vor Neuem Angst haben
to be afraid of new things
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