nounnoun

der Erste, -n

first

Erste is a form of the German adjective erst and generally means “first.”

It can be used in several ways:

Feminine form of “first”
It describes a feminine noun:
- die erste Frage — the first question
- die erste Woche — the first week
Nominalized adjective: “the first one” or “the first woman”
When used as a noun, it is capitalized:
- Sie war die Erste. — She was the first one.
- die Erste in der Reihe — the first person in the row
Part of fixed expressions
- Erste Hilfe — first aid
- erste Klasse — first class
- zum Ersten — firstly; for one thing

Erste is the feminine nominative or accusative singular form of the ordinal adjective erst , meaning “first.”

It can also be a nominalized adjective, in which case it is written with a capital letter:

The word consists of the stem erst and the adjective ending -e . It is historically related to the idea of being earliest or foremost.

erstmalig — occurring for the first time; more formal and usually referring to an event or occurrence
anfänglich — initial or at the beginning; it emphasizes the early stage rather than rank or order
zuerst — first or firstly; this is an adverb, not an adjective

letzte — last; the direct opposite in a sequence
vorletzte — penultimate, or second to last
spätere — later; contrasts with “first” in terms of time, but does not necessarily mean “last”

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Ich nehme den ersten Zug nach Berlin.noun

I am taking the first train to Berlin.

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