Nominalization of adjectives and participles in German

Adjectival nominalization

Participial nominalization

- When used as a noun, the adjective or participle is capitalized; however, it must still follow the adjective declension rules. 

Example: 

Ein fremder Mann klingelt an der Tür.

=  Ein Fremder klingelt an der Tür. 

(A strange man is ringing the doorbell.)

→ fremd, once capitalized, must take an adjective ending. Because Mann is a masculine noun in the Nominativ, the nominalized form of fremd must also take the masculine Nominativ ending: Fremder

- Similarly to adjectives, both Partizip I and Partizip II, when functioning as adjectives, can be nominalized to become nouns.

- When using an adjective/participle as a noun, the original noun is dropped without affecting the meaning of the sentence. Nouns such as "Mensch", "Mann" or "Frau" are commonly omitted, since we usually know who we are talking about.

Phân từ I (Partizip I)

Beim Flugzeugabsturz gab es keine überlebenden Menschen. 

= Beim Flugzeugabsturz gab es keine Überlebenden.

(There were no survivors in the plane crash.)

!!!! Note: After etwas, nichts, wenig, viel you need to add -es to the adjective that has been nominalized. 

Ich lerne viel Neues.

(I have learned many new things.)

Partizip II (Partizip II)

Der vermisste Mann konnte noch nicht gefunden werden. 

= Der Vermisste konnte noch nicht gefunden werden.

(The missing man has not yet been found.)