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I saw these German sentences and am wonder what 'großer' means compared to 'groß'.

Nein, der Hut ist zu klein! Ich brauche einen großen Hut!
Hier. Ein großer Hut.

I understand that 'großen' means 'bigger' as a comparative.

But what is the difference between 'groß' and 'großen'?

In the Wiktionary, it is

  1. strong/mixed nominative masculine singular
  2. strong genitive/dative feminine singular
  3. strong genitive plural

Since Hut is masculine, it must be 1. strong/mixed nominative masculine singular.

I understand what masculine singular is, but do not understand what 'strong/mixed nominative' is.

user67275
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1 Answers1

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understand that 'großen' means 'bigger' as a comparative.

You understand wrong. The comparative of groß is größer. The form großen is one particular declined form of groß. The same particular declined form of größer is größeren.

And yes, großer and größerer also exist.

I understand what masculine singular is, but do not understand what 'strong/mixed nominative' is.

Nominative is a case, and strong/mixed are categories in adjective declination. But don't learn those forms this way. That's horribly confusing.

Instead, drill the full declination tables with all adjective endings for the strong, weak, and mixed categories. This will take a while until it sinks in. Repeat each day and drill many many examples until it sticks.

We can't make German adjective declination fun. Nor easy. But the best way to get past this hump is sitting down for a few days and learning it by hundreds of examples.

Janka
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  • You are right. I meant to write 'größer' as a comparative, but wrote it incorrectly. Your advice is valuable. It is very confusing and need to memorize the table as a whole. – user67275 May 05 '23 at 00:29
  • If you can't type ö, write oe instead. And the same for Ö → Oe and the other Umlaute.The two dots represent a small e above the letter. In old handwriting, such small e looked like two tiny vertical strokes. That's how they became dots later. – Janka May 05 '23 at 06:44