is "wie geschnitten Brot" grammatically correct?

Question

I came across this idiom in a sentence similar to this one: > das iPhone verkauft sich wie geschnitten Brot *geschnitten Brot* sounds wrong to me, shouldn't the adjective be declined? I searched the alternative form "wie geschnittenes Brot" and based on google results it is 4 times less popular.

Answer 1

This come from older German from a couple hundred years ago when the adjective endings got dropped sometimes. The saying has stayed the same, so it is "wie geschnitten Brot". When you want to talk about cut bread in a different context though, "geschnittenes Brot" or "aufgeschnittenes Brot" is correct. A very similar saying to this one is "etwas geht weg wie warme Brötchen/Semmeln".