richtigen

Richtigen is the inflected form of the German adjective richtig, meaning correct, proper, or true. In German, adjectives inflect for case, number, and gender, so richten forms appear in several patterns. The most common use is after a definite article or other determiner, where the weak ending -en is added in many plural and certain singular forms, for example: die richtigen Antworten (nominative plural), den richtigen Weg (accusative masculine singular), mit den richtigen Werkzeugen (dative plural).

Richtigen also appears in mixed or strong inflection when no definite determiner is present. For instance, richtige Antworten (nominative plural without article) or den richtigen Wegen (dative plural with strong ending). The adjective form changes to richtiger, richtige, or richtigen depending on case, gender, and article, so it can appear as richtige, richtigen, richtige, etc., in different contexts.

In addition to its attributive use, richtig can function predicatively after verbs like sein or werden, usually in the uninflected form richtig: Die Antworten sind richtig. When used as a noun, the plural form Die Richtigen can mean “the right ones” or “the people who were correct/right,” capitalized as a noun.

Etymology traces richtig back to Middle High German rihtig, from Old High German rihtig, related to the Proto-Germanic root for “right” or “true.” The word shares cognates with English right and forms a core semantic field of correctness and propriety in German.