Öffentlichen

Öffentlichen is the inflected form of the German adjective öffentlich. It is used to describe nouns in the sense of being related to the public, accessible to people in general, or belonging to the public sphere. The form appears in many common phrases, especially in political, legal, urban and media language.

Grammatical use and declension. In front of a noun with a definite determiner (der, die, das, die), German adjectives take weak endings. The ending that appears as públicos is often -en in plural, and varies in singular according to gender and case. Examples include die öffentlichen Verkehrsmittel (the public transport, plural), im öffentlichen Raum (in public space, dative singular masculine), des öffentlichen Lebens (of public life, genitive neuter), der öffentlichen Meinung (of the public opinion, genitive feminine). The pattern shows that -en is a frequent ending in plural and in several singular cases after definite articles.

Verbal use. Öffentlich is primarily an adjective, but the related verb form ver-öffentlichen means to publish or to make public. Its present tense forms are ich veröffentliche, du veröffentlichst, er/sie veröffentlicht, wir veröffentlichen, ihr veröffentlicht, sie veröffentlichen. The past participle is veröffentlicht. The related noun öffentlichkeit denotes the public sphere or the general public.

Relation to the term Öffentlichkeit. The noun Öffentlichkeit refers to the public sphere and the general public. While Öffentlichkeit describes the concept, öffentlich and its inflected forms like öffentlichen function as descriptors within phrases that address access, openness, or public relevance.

In summary, öffentlichen is a key inflected form of öffentlich used across cases and numbers to express public-related meaning, and it also appears in the related verb veröffentlichen for publishing.