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"Kinder, liebe Kinder, es hat mir Spaß gemacht." From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandm%C3%A4nnchen

Here, Kinder is nominative plural: die Kinder. So, one would say "Die Kinder sind liebe" I would expect "Lieben Kinder sind..."

Is there a reason for this or is it just some poetic license?

user unknown
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    None of the forms that you expect are correct, so this question does not make much sense. https://de.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Flexion:lieb – Carsten S Aug 27 '16 at 15:32
  • So the question: is this correct "liebe Kinder" in this context doesn't make sense? I just want to know if it's liebe Kinder or lieben Kinder. –  Aug 27 '16 at 16:38
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    The person saying "liebe Kinder" adresses them. He uses Nominative, just as "dear children" in English does. If you can help us understand your question, we will gladly help. – Ludi Aug 27 '16 at 17:35
  • Oh! So the difference is that it is being addressed? So these are correct: "Meine lieben Kinder sind hier." and "Liebe Kinder, hören sein", yes? I'm sorry if this was a bad question. I've been studying German on my own for only a few weeks and working my way through declensions with adjectives. All of the other examples I looked at followed the rule I was expecting, except this one. I thank you for your time. –  Aug 27 '16 at 17:48
  • @Casey The first one is perfect. The second one is not intelligible. Do you want to say Liebe Kinder, hört zu!, Dear Children, listen up!? – Ludi Aug 27 '16 at 18:06
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    Maybe this question is helpful: http://german.stackexchange.com/questions/25357/same-noun-same-case-same-adjective-different-ending-what-are-the-rules-behi – Carsten S Aug 27 '16 at 18:14
  • Yes, that is perfect. Thank you. The original reason for my question was this line "Kinder, liebe Kinder, es hat mir Spaß gemacht. Nun schnell ins Bett und schlaft recht schön. Dann will auch ich zur Ruhe gehn. Ich wünsch euch gute Nacht." from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandm%C3%A4nnchen –  Aug 27 '16 at 18:27
  • Es müsste "Die Kinder sind lieb" heißen bzw. "Die lieben Kinder sind ...". (Adjektiv, Adverb). Singular: "Das Kind ist lieb." bzw. "Das liebe Kind/ein liebes Kind ist ...". "Die Kinder machen Liebe" ist ja eher nicht gemeint. – user unknown Aug 27 '16 at 23:49
  • Before the Germanic languages lost the vocative case, there would have been a different form for dear children here. – Jan Aug 28 '16 at 12:32

1 Answers1

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The heart of the sentence is "Es hat mir Spaß gemacht." This has given me a good time.

"Kinder, liebe Kinder," (Children, dear children) is a form of address that is appended to the main sentence above. This phrase is "standalone," and is not connected to any verb in the main sentence.

Tom Au
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  • This answers Ludi's question ;) – Carsten S Aug 28 '16 at 14:58
  • @CarstenS: "Ludi's question?" The OP is named Casey? – Tom Au Aug 28 '16 at 15:15
  • Exactly. I am not sure whether you have answered Casey's question, but you have answered the question in the title, which was edited by Ludi. – Carsten S Aug 28 '16 at 16:29
  • @CarstenS: Fair enough.I answer the question I see, regardless of "etymology." I believe that the rest of the question "follows" from the revised title. I'm not in the business of getting into Casey's or anyone else's mind. – Tom Au Aug 28 '16 at 16:34
  • IOW: Vocative and nominative are the same morphologically in contemporary German. – Crissov Aug 29 '16 at 15:20