When to use it
Use it in the street or at a hotel when you need to catch a train.
The sentence in English: “Where is the nearest train station?”
"Where is the nearest train station?" uses the superlative "nearest" and the compound "train station".
- Where
- adverbquestion word asking about place
- is
- verbbe · tense: present · person: third · number: singular · form of "to be"; here it says where something is
- the
- determinerdefinite article
- nearest
- adjectivesuperlative of "near"
- train
- nounnoun; it says what kind of station
- station
- nounnoun
The sentence in German: “Wo ist der nächste Bahnhof?”
"Wo ist der nächste Bahnhof?" uses "nächste", the superlative of "nah" (near); it also means "next". "Bahnhof" is one word and means a train station.
- Wo
- adverbquestion word: "where"
- ist
- verbsein · tense: present · mood: indicative · person: third · number: singular · "is"
- der
- determinerdefinite article, masculine: "the"
- nächste
- adjectivesuperlative of "nah" (near): "nearest", also "next"
- Bahnhof
- nounmasculine compound noun: Bahn + Hof, "train station"
What changes from one language to the other: English × German
English builds the superlative with -est; German "nah" has an irregular superlative, "nächste". German needs no word for "train": "Bahnhof" already means train station.
Example conversation
— Entschuldigung, wo ist der nächste Bahnhof?
— Excuse me, where is the nearest train station?
— Etwa zehn Minuten zu Fuß, immer geradeaus.
— About ten minutes on foot, straight ahead.