sommerlichen

Sommerlichen is the inflected form of the German adjective sommerlich, meaning summer-like or summery. It is used in attributive position before a noun and follows the standard rules of German adjective declension. The ending -en appears in a number of common contexts, particularly in the dative case or in plural forms after definite determiners.

Examples of usage:

- Die sommerlichen Nächte waren mild. (nominative plural with die)

- Bei der sommerlichen Nacht wehte eine leichte Brise. (dative feminine singular)

- Dem sommerlichen Licht spiegelte sich das Meer. (dative neuter singular)

- Mit den sommerlichen Temperaturen stieg die Stimmung. (dative plural)

In contrast, other cases and numbers can yield different endings, such as sommerliche in some strong declension contexts or die sommerlichen Nächte in the plural with definite articles. The form sommerlichen is thus most commonly encountered in phrases describing weather, landscapes, or seasonal atmospheres, where a summer-like quality is being attributed to a noun.

Etymology and relation: sommerlichen derives from Sommer (summer) plus the suffix -lich, forming sommerlich (summer-like). The composite has been in use in German since at least the 19th century and remains common in prose, journalism, and poetry to convey seasonal imagery.

See also: sommerlich, German adjective declension, weather vocabulary, seasonal descriptions.