ausländischer

Ausländischer is a German adjective meaning foreign or non-native, and it is used to describe nouns of foreign origin or origin outside a given country. It is the attributive form of the stem ausländisch and changes its ending according to case, gender, and article. In everyday language it appears in phrases such as ausländischer Student, ausländische Investitionen or ausländischer Pass.

Etymology and meaning: The word derives from aus-, a prefix meaning out or from, combined with ländisch, relating to land. Over time it has come to denote things relating to other countries or origins outside the speaker’s own nation. As an adjective, ausländisch can describe people, objects, concepts or influences that originate outside the country in question.

Usage and examples: Ausländischer Student (a foreign male student) is a common example in which the form ausländischer appears in the nominative singular with no definite article or in strong/mixed declension. Other examples include ausländische Mächte (foreign powers) and ausländische Kunst (foreign art). The word itself is not a noun; the corresponding noun for a person from another country is Ausländer (foreigner) or Ausländerin (female foreigner).

Distinctions: It is important to distinguish ausländischer from Ausländer, the latter being a noun. In contemporary usage, the noun Ausländer may be considered outdated or less neutral in some contexts; terms such as Person mit Migrationshintergrund are sometimes preferred for sensitive descriptions.

See also: ausländisch, Ausländer, migration, migration background.