spielendes

Spielendes is the present participle of the German verb spielen (to play) used as an attributive adjective. It denotes that the noun is in the act of playing and is most common in descriptive text.

Declension and examples

As an adjective, spielendes follows the standard German adjective endings. After an indefinite article ein, neuter singular takes the form ein spielendes Kind (a playing child). After a definite article das, neuter singular becomes das spielende Kind. In the plural, die spielenden Kinder describes children who are playing. The stem changes accordingly for other genders: ein spielender Mann (a playing man) and eine spielende Frau (a playing woman). With no article or with other determiner patterns, other endings appear as in normal adjective declension.

Usage notes

Spielendes typically appears immediately before the noun it modifies. It signals ongoing action at the time described. In contrast to the participle form spielend used without an ending, spielendes is specifically the attributive form that takes endings depending on sex, number, and case. The predicative use of the present participle (for example, after sein) is possible but less common; alternatives like er spielt or er ist am Spielen are more usual in everyday German.

Nominalization caveat

The string spielendes can also appear in a nominalized context as a form related to the noun end of a game, especially when capitalized as Spielende (das Spielende). In such cases the capitalized noun means “end of the game,” and its inflected forms follow noun declension (des Spielendes, die Spielenden, etc.), not the attributive adjective pattern described above.

See also

German present participles, adjective declension, nominalized forms.