Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Comments on What grammatical category does "Weihnachten" fall into?

Post

What grammatical category does "Weihnachten" fall into?

+6
−0

The German word "Weihnachten" (Christmas) is an odd one. It's a neuter noun (das Weihnachten) even though it's based on a feminine one (die Nacht, night). The traditional Christmas greetings, "Frohe Weihnachten" or "Fröhliche Weihnachten," don't follow the rules for singular neuter nouns, though they'd make sense if it were a plural (think of the 12 days of Christmas). The plural of "Nacht," though, is "Nächte." Some German nouns add "-en" as a plural or for non-nominative singular cases, but that never happens with feminine nouns, and neuter nouns partially follow it only when they have certain endings (e.g., das Museum / die Museen). The dative plural for "Nacht" is "Nächten," but the umlaut is mandatory.

As a further complication, the combining form changes the "en" to "s" (Weihnachtsmarkt, Weihnachtsabend, and many others). The combining form of "Nacht" is just "Nacht-".

Does "Weihnachten" fall into some grammatical category that lets this all make sense, or is it a unique instance, built from dialects and archaic usage?

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

2 comment threads

DAS Weihnachten? (5 comments)
Found this on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/German/comments/3yqlqd/why_is_it_frohe_weihnachten_ins... (1 comment)
DAS Weihnachten?
H_H‭ wrote 12 months ago

Das Weihnachten klingt total falsch. Bisher habe ich das noch nie gehört. Die Weihnachten klingt richtig.

gmcgath‭ wrote 12 months ago

We should probably stick to English in the discussion, since this is a mostly English-language site. (Translation: "Das Weihnachten" sounds totally wrong. Till now I've never heard it. "Die Weihnachten" sounds right.) But to answer your comment, the singular "Weihnachten" gets recognition from online dictionaries. Leo.de says it's a singular noun, though the plural is also "Weihnachten." Langenscheidt also gives it as a singular neuter noun.

Maybe what's going on is that it's almost always used in the plural form, which for reasons going back into history is different from the plural of "Nacht." That covers most of what's odd, though it's still weird that it's used in the plural and that Christmas Day is a "night."

H_H‭ wrote 12 months ago · edited 12 months ago

We should probably stick to English in the discussion, since this is a mostly English-language site.

Nö. Wir diskutieren hier über die deutsche Sprache, also kann ich auch deutsch schreiben. Englisch ist bereits viel zu überrepräsentiert und ungeeignet für genaue Aussagen, da englisch Wörter oft zu unpräzise sind.

Einzahl würde »Die Weihnacht« richtig klingen. Würde jemand zu mir »Das Weihnachten« oder »Das Weihnacht« sagen würde ich denken das Deutsch eine Fremdsprache für ihn ist.

Mag sein, dass der Duden, Leo, Langenscheidt oder sonst wer das anders sieht, eventuell ist es auch nicht in jeder Region gleich. Dennoch, niemand der hier, wo ich lebe, in einer deutschsprachigen Region, aufgewachsen ist, würde »Das Weihnachten« sagen.

Ich bin, wie du vielleicht an meiner Sprache siehst, kein Experte der deutschen Sprache. Es ist einfach so, dass für mich, jemand der deutsch als Muttersprache hat, »Das Weihnachten« komplett falsch klingt.

Jirka Hanika‭ wrote 12 months ago

Let's not confuse the use of articles with grammatical genders.

IF an article is to be used, then the gender becomes relevant for the choice of the article. Otherwise it's best to stop equating der/die/das with the grammatical genders for that particular word. "Weihnachten" goes without an article in German Standard German, Austrian Standard German, and, I believe, also in Swiss Standard German. Any exotic, regional usage with an article can only confuse the non-native speaker who is still working hard to master one of the standard forms of the language. Similarly, "die Weihnacht" should be treated as a different word with a different meaning, different gender, and different rules for the use of an article; it's roughly equivalent to "die heilige Nacht", the single night during which Jesus was born.

Jesus. Not "the Jesus".

Jirka Hanika‭ wrote 12 months ago · edited 12 months ago

"Die Weihnacht", a single night starting by the sunset on 12/24, marks the beginning of "das Weihnachtsfest", the multi-day period also known as "Weihnachten". In German-speaking countries, at least Saint Stephen's Day (Boxing Day) is understood to be part of Christmas, and not a holiday following Christmas. Hope that this helps to clarify that "die Weihnacht" and "Weihnachten" are in no way synonyms.