Kurze

Kurze is the inflected form of the German adjective kurz, meaning "short." In German, adjectives are declined to reflect gender, case, and number, so kurze appears in several common forms. It is used before nouns to describe length or duration, and its ending changes with the surrounding article and noun.

With a definite article, the adjective takes the ending -e in all singular genders: der kurze Mann, die kurze Frau, das kurze Auto. In the plural with a definite article, the ending is -en: die kurzen Strecken. When there is no definite article, the strong ending for the plural is -e: kurze Strecken.

With an indefinite article, endings vary by gender: ein kurzer Mann (masculine singular), eine kurze Strecke (feminine singular), ein kurzes Auto (neuter singular). In each case, kurze is the base form used for feminine singular in the definite article and for masculine and neuter singular forms under other article patterns.

Kurze is primarily a descriptive adjective and not a noun. It can occur in compound phrases and is common in everyday usage, for example to describe a short distance (eine kurze Strecke) or a brief explanation (eine kurze Erklärung).

Etymology and cognates: kurz derives from the Germanic root for “short,” with cognates in related languages such as Dutch kort, Danish kort, and Swedish kort. The form kurze represents the modern German inflection used in various grammatical contexts.

In summary, kurze is a versatile, grammatically inflected form of kurz used across masculine, feminine, neuter, and plural contexts to denote brevity or limited duration in German.