Komischen

Komischen is a declined form of the German adjective komisch. It is not a standalone noun or verb, but an inflected ending used when komisch describes a noun in certain grammatical contexts. The form komischen commonly appears with definite or possessive determiners, and in several cases and numbers, such as dative singular and plural forms, as well as in nominative plural.

Meaning and usage: Komisch can mean both funny, humorous and odd, strange, depending on context and tone. The same form komischen carries these nuances when it modifies nouns in different cases. For example, it can express humor in a sentence like die komischen Geschichten (the funny stories) or oddness in eine komische Situation (a strange situation). In spoken German, the distinction between humorous and odd is often inferred from intonation and surrounding words, rather than from the adjective alone.

Grammar and examples: As an attributive adjective, komisch inflects according to case, gender, and number. Examples include:

- der komische Mann (nominative singular masculine)

- die komische Geschichte (nominative singular feminine)

- dem komischen Mann (dative singular masculine)

- der komischen Frau (dative singular feminine)

- den komischen Geschichten (dative plural)

- die komischen Geschichten (nominative plural)

- meine komischen Geschichten (possessive + plural)

Adverbially, komisch can function without inflection, meaning “in a funny/odd way” (das war komisch; er sieht komisch aus).

Etymology: The adjective komisch is related to Komik and Comical, with roots in Greek via Latin and French, and it entered German to express both humor and anomaly.

See also: Komik, komisch (adjective), witzig, seltsam.