What's the difference between "Guten" and "Gute"? Ex: "Guten Tag";

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1

What’s the difference between “Guten” and “Gute”?

Ex: “Guten Tag”; “Guten Morgen!” and “Gute Nacht!” When we say about “Nacht”, we say “Gute”, and I have questions about this.

Thank you!

2

“Guten” is an adjective that changes according to the gender and the case of the noun.
Please learn “Guten Tag”, Guten Abend" and so forth as phrases which are set.

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3

(Ich wünsche Ihnen einen) guten Tag.
(Ich wünsche Ihnen eine) gute Nacht.
The words in the parentheses are omitted. Am I right?

4

Yes, you are right. But if you would like to just use “gut” + noun, then it will be written in this way: “Guten Tag.”, “Gute Nacht.” (capital letters in the beginning :wink: ).

5

Just to be clear, in terms of meaning, there is no difference between gute and guten. The reason you use guten when with Morgan and Tag is that these nouns are masculine. The reason you use gute with Nacht is that this noun is feminine.

@ tobiassimon

So one would write

Sie hat ‘Guten Tag’ gesagt.

and not

Sie hat ‘guten Tag’ gesagt.

Is this correct?

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6

Gute Reise!
Das ist eine gute Idee.
Eine Fahrkarte nach Bonn, bitte.

The first letter is capitalized.

7

Gute Nacht! Guten Tag! Guten Morgen! Guten Abend! Gute Reise! Guten Appetit! etc have the capital letter because they are at the beginning of a sentence. You can write, for example, “Bist du taub? Ich habe laut und deutlich ‘guten Morgen’ gesagt!”.

Edited for punctuation issues :slight_smile:

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I feel that German grammar is mysteriously consistent and logical. I think that English is less suitable than German for describing things scientifically. Of course, this mysteriousness might come from the fact that I don’t know much about it. But I am fascinated by the logical complexity.

9

Logik hin und Logik her, die Sprache bleibt nun einmal schwer! (I am a poet and I didn’t know it…)

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10

Ah, you’re a poet and you have no idea about that.

I don’t know if German is better than English for describing things scientifically. It could be. The fact that English dominates the sciences and not German has nothing to do with which one is fundamentally more suitable.