So it's a noun but it's acting adverbially so is not capitalized. (It's only a concise grammar, so it doesn't go into any more detail.) If this is confusing, compare it with "Paar," which is not capitlized when it means "a few"--ein paar Sachen, a few things--but is capitalized when it actually does mean "a pair (two)"--ein Paar Schuhe, a pair of a shoes (two shoes).William Rowlinson said:Nouns not used as nouns have a small letter:
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Das bisschen, a bit, is now only ever used with a small letter:ein bisschen Zucker, a little sugar
kein bisschen Zucker, no sugar at all
das klein bisschen Zucker, the small amount of sugar (note the invariable klein)
No, that's not correct. Ein paar means a few, but ein Paar really means a pair.That's odd, I learned that it should be capitalized when it means "a few" as well.
They even use my example.Klein schreibt man Wörter, die formgleich als Substantive vorkommen, aber selbst keine Substantivischen Merkmale aufweisen.
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(5) die folgenden unbestimmten Zahlwörter:
ein bisschen (= ein wenig), ein paar (= einige)
Beispiele:
ein bisschen Leim, dieses klein bisschen Leim; ein paar Steine, diese paar Steine (aber nach § 55(5): ein Paar Schuhe)
Biß -> Bißchen seems rather unusal to me cf. howver Bissen -> BißchenThere is one exception where it is a noun - as diminutive to "Biss". Es war kein Biss sondern nur ein Bisschen. Robocop mentioned this already, but the word was at the beginning of the sentence so you could not see whether it is lowercase or uppercase.
I know "Bissen" as the portion that you take with one bite. Yet, "Bisschen" as a diminutive of "Biss" (and that it is principally) is as rare (or unusual) as "Bisschen" in "das kleine Bisschen Schokolade" (would you say, for example, "reich mir mal ein Bisschen Schokolade rüber" or "er hat sich an einem Bisschen Schokolade verschluckt"?). The usual form would be "bisschen Schokolade" (or even "Stück Schokolade").ein Bißchen Brot, das kleine Bißchen Schokolade
Hmm. Wouldn't that infer"Das war kein Biss, das war bloss ein Bisschen (es wurde also nicht sehr kräftig zugebissen). Apart from that I cannot think of any meaningful usage of "Bisschen".
Adjective? How or in what context?"bisschen" may be an adjective or adverb. "Bisschen" (capitalized! - I did not realize that here capitalization is concealed by the particular position of the word) is a diminutive of "Biss" (bite).
ein bisschen Geld, ein bisschen Dreck, ein bisschen Schokolade, ... You would not consider "bisschen" to be an adjective in this usage?!Adjective? How or in what context?
Not really ... unless there is a good argument for considering it an adjective.ein bisschen Geld, ein bisschen Dreck, ein bisschen Schokolade, ... You would not consider "bisschen" to be an adjective in this usage?!