Substantive Nouns Derivative from Adjectives & Verbs in German

Can nouns be derived? I thought nouns were natural names of persons, animals, places, things or ideas. If indeed nouns can be derived in German, what gender would they have and how would the accurate articles be assigned to them? These and many more questions you probably asked yourself about substantive nouns are clarified below. Keep on reading!

A noun is said to be substantive when it is a derivative of some other parts of speech such as adjectives and verbs. They can either be of the masculine, feminine, neuter or plural gender depending on the rule that bred them.

How are Substantive Nouns Formed?

This category of German nouns are formed from adjectives and verbs under different procedures such as;

• By placing the adjective directly after certain indefinite pronouns
• By adding the suffix “-heit” or “-keit” to a naturally occurring adjective
• By end-declining regular and irregular adjectives
• From Infinitive verb
• From Partizip I
• From Partizip II

Note that regardless of how these nouns are formed, they must be capitalized at the Initial letter.

Indefinite Pronouns + Adjectives as Nouns

When adjectives are placed directly after certain indefinite pronouns such as etwas, alles, nichts etc., they become substantive neuter nouns and must be capitalized at the initials in addition to the declination with –e or –es. Those placed after pronouns like alles, take up the suffix –e while those placed after etwas, nichts etc. take up the suffix –es.

Heit & Keit + Adjectives as Nouns

Nouns formed by adding heit or keit to adjectives are always of the feminine gender classification. The suffix keit is added to adjectives that end with -bar, -ich and -ig while heit could be used with all others.

Regular and Irregular Adjectives as Nouns

Regular and irregular adjectives as well as superlative adjectives can both be used as nouns. While the positive and negative form is declined based on the grammatical case to the supposed masculine, feminine or plural noun that they refer to, superlative adjectives always form neuter nouns. See examples below…

Substantive Nouns of Infinitive Verbs

These verbs turned nouns are always Neuter and take on the suffix –ing in English. They differ from the Partizip I which also has the same suffix in English in that the Partizip I counterpart can only perform as adjectives or adverbs. See examples below;

Articles + Substantive Nouns of German Infinitive verbs

This group of nouns are only used with the definite and possessive articles in German. Since the indefinite articles (ein, eine, eine etc.) cannot be used with them, negating them with the negation articles (kein, keiner, keinen etc) is not possible either. The negation particle nicht is used instead to negate the sentence. See illustration below.

Zum + Nouns of Verb Infinitives

The contraction zum which literally means ‘to the’, is oftentimes used with the substantive of Infinitive verbs to mean ‘for’. See illustration below;

Substantive nouns of Partizip I

The Partizip I when used as adjectives, have the suffix –ing in English but as substantive nouns, they do not take on this suffix. Unlike those substantive of infinitive verbs, this group of nouns are either masculine, feminine or plural with end-declension like adjectives according to their grammatical case/ position in the sentence. They are used in modern German to prevent gender/ sexual preference discrimination. See below…

Substantive nouns of Partizip II

Nouns formed with the Partizip II form of a German verb can only be masculine, feminine or plural in accordance with the grammatical case just like the Partizip I.