Genitiv with nouns that ends with "e" and has der as an atricle
Der Erfolg des Restaurants hängt der freundlichkeit des "services" ab.

why "des services" not "des servicen", i thought there is a rule that if a noun takes "der" and ends with "e", in the genitiv it ends with "n" not "s"?

Question

Genitiv with nouns that ends with "e" and has der as an atricle
Der Erfolg des Restaurants hängt der freundlichkeit des "services" ab.

why "des services" not "des servicen", i thought there is a rule that if a noun takes "der" and ends with "e", in the genitiv it ends with "n" not "s"?

Answer

"Der Service" is a modern loanword from English and has kept the English spelling, although the final -e is not pronounced. There are two ways to form the genitive case: you can either treat it like a German word that ends in -s which does not take any additional ending --> des Service, or you can adopt the English possessive form (service's) into German and just drop the apostrophe -> des Services. Both forms are accepted. I personally prefer the former one.

Answer

"Service" isn't originally a German word - it's an anglicism. You don't pronounce the "-e" when you say it. That's why the rule doesn't apply.

Also, in your example, there is a word missing between "hängt" and "der". ;)

Answers · 2

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