In spoken and informal written German, it’s common for words to be left out when their meaning is clear from context. This kind of omission is called ellipsis. Native speakers rely on shared background knowledge, situation-specific cues, or earlier parts of the conversation to skip over parts of a sentence without losing meaning.
Someone might ask Wie war der Film? and the response could be just War er, where the adjective gut is left out. The full sentence Der Film war gut is shortened because gut is already implied by the question and possibly the speaker’s tone or expression. Even er might be dropped, so someone could answer with only War, meaning “It was (good).” English tends to require an adjective in such cases — a simple Was isn’t acceptable in reply to “How was it?” — so this kind of ellipsis is more common and more natural in German than in English.
In English, replies like “It goes” to “How does it go?” may seem similar to German elliptical replies like “Geht”, but the patterns are different. English uses such phrases as fixed expressions, while German allows broader and more flexible omission of elements like adjectives or verbs, especially when their meaning is clear from context. A German speaker might say just “War” or “Ist”, leaving out adjectives like gut, klar, or richtig, which would be ungrammatical in English.
Other adjectives are left out in the same way. If someone says Hat das geklappt?, a reply might be Hat, omitting gut or super. The full form Das hat gut geklappt is reduced, and the adjective is assumed from context or tone. A similar thing happens with schlecht or nicht so gut — in response to Wie lief’s?, a speaker might say just Lief nicht, dropping the rest. In English, “Went not” isn’t grammatical; you’d need to say “It didn’t go well,” so these structures don’t map directly across the languages.
Another frequent example is klar. If someone says Kannst du das machen?, the reply might be Klar or even just Ist, with klar dropped. A fuller version would be Das ist klar or Ja, das ist klar, but again, the context makes the shorter version work. Similarly, richtig is often dropped in responses where agreement is implied. If one person says Das war gestern schon zu spät, the other might say War, skipping richtig or stimmt, because the main point is to show agreement. English would typically say “It was,” but would often add “right” or “true” or some qualifier to make the response complete. In German, just War carries enough weight to be understood as agreement or confirmation.
In longer sentences or narratives, adjectives and adverbs can also drop out when they’re predictable. For example, in a story: Das Wetter war perfekt. Der Strand... unglaublich. Alles einfach..., where unglaublich is a floating adjective and what’s left unsaid is probably something like Der Strand war unglaublich and Alles einfach traumhaft, but the listener is expected to fill in what’s missing. This kind of storytelling ellipsis gives a rhythm to speech and reflects shared emotional or descriptive space.
This also happens with modal constructions where the adjective or participle is assumed. For instance, after Kann man das essen?, someone might say Kann man, with the implication being Ja, man kann das essen. Or Ist essbar might be the full meaning, but the adjective is skipped entirely. The answer Kann man holds all that meaning within it.
Ellipsis often affects pronouns too. In everyday speech, Germans frequently drop ich, du, or er/sie in short replies or comments. Someone might say Bin müde, where the subject Ich is missing, but nobody would misunderstand. This kind of subject ellipsis is typical in informal settings, especially when responding quickly or continuing a thread from earlier.