Frozen Forms and Fixed Grammatical Idioms

Why some idioms lock their grammar — and why you must memorise them as chunks.

Frozen grammatical idioms are fixed expressions whose internal grammar does not follow the standard productive rules of modern German.

Where standard grammar requires an article, an idiom may delete it. Where standard grammar demands strong adjective inflection, an idiom may freeze the weak form. These patterns cannot be predicted — they must be recognised and reproduced exactly as learned.

At C2 level, mastery of frozen idioms signals authentic, near-native command of German.

Types of Frozen Grammatical Pattern

Pattern Type	Example	Rule Violated
Article deletion	auf Anhieb	Countable nouns normally require an article
Plural without article	unter Umständen	Indefinite plurals require marking
Frozen weak adjective	kurzen Prozess machen	Adjectives without article take strong endings
Repetitive N-Präp-N	Seite an Seite	Nouns do not normally repeat without inflection

Key principle: Frozen idioms must be memorised as grammatical chunks, not assembled from productive rules.

Test: If inflecting a word inside the expression destroys the idiomatic reading, the form is frozen.

C2 requirement: Produce frozen forms accurately in spontaneous writing and speech.