bloße

Bloße is the feminine singular inflected form of the German adjective bloß, which means bare, naked, or mere. In standard German, bloße is used before a feminine noun with a definite article in the nominative or accusative cases to express the sense of “the bare/merely …” as in die bloße Tatsache or die bloße Wahrheit.

Grammar and usage

In phrases with a definite article, adjectives in German take weak endings. For feminine singular nouns in the nominative or accusative case, the form is bloße (with the ß). Examples: die bloße Tatsache (the mere fact), die bloße Wahrheit (the bare truth). In other cases, the ending changes: for example, in the dative feminine singular you would typically see der bloßen Tatsache (the dative form), where the ending -en is added. The plural form is die bloßen Fakten (the mere/few facts). Bloße is primarily an attributive adjective; it does not stand alone as a separate word beyond its role as the inflected form of bloß.

Etymology and usage nuance

Bloß comes from a Germanic root meaning bare or naked and has cognates in other Germanic languages, such as Dutch bloot. The sense of bloße is that of emphasis on the bare minimum or mere existence of something; it is common in formal, literary, and journalistic German. While bloß can also function as an adverb meaning “merely” or “only” in phrases like bloß nicht, those uses are separate from the attributive form bloße, which accompanies a noun.

See also

German adjectives with definite article endings; usage of bare/merely as a stylistic device in German literature.