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Nouns and Cases
All nouns have a gender in German, either masculine, feminine or neuter. There really isn't a lot of logic to which nouns are which gender, so you must memorize the gender of each noun. Male persons or animals, the seasons, months, and days are all masculine, as are nouns ending in -ant, -ast, -ich, -ig, -ismus, -ling, -or and -us. Female persons or animals, German rivers and numerals are all feminine, as are nouns ending in -a, -anz, -ei, -enz, -heit, -ie, -ik, -in, -keit, -schaft, -sion, -sis, -tät, -tion, -ung and -ur. Young persons or animals, metals, chemical elements, letters of the alphabet, hotels, restaurants, cinemas, continents, countries and provinces are all neuter, as are nouns that end in -chen, -icht, -il, -it, -lein, -ma, -ment, -tel, -tum, and -um. Nouns referring to things that end in -al, -an, -ar, -ät, -ent, -ett, -ier, -iv, -o and -on, as well as most words with the prefix ge- and most nouns ending in -nis and -sal are also neuter. All nouns in German are capitalized as well.
All nouns (as well as pronouns and adjectives) have a case depending on what function they serve in the sentence. These may seem strange, but remember that English uses cases also; however, we would say direct object instead of accusative, or indirect object instead of dative. Although these cases may make learning new words difficult, they actually help with word order because the position of words in a sentence is not as crucial in German as it is in English. And the reason for that is because words can occur in these four cases:
| Nominative |
subject of the sentence |
The girl is reading. |
| Accusative |
direct objects |
We see the guide. |
| Dative |
indirect objects |
We give it to the guide. |
| Genitive |
indicates possession or relationship |
The book of the girl. |
Note: The nouns I give you, and the ones you look up in a dictionary, will be in the nominative case.
Articles and Demonstratives
Definite Articles (The)
|
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
Plural |
| Nominative |
der (dare) |
die (dee) |
das (dahs) |
die |
| Accusative |
den (dane) |
die |
das |
die |
| Dative |
dem (dame) |
der |
dem |
den |
| Genitive |
des (dess) |
der |
des |
der |
Indefinite Articles (A, An)
|
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
| Nom. |
ein (ine) |
eine (ine-uh) |
ein |
| Acc. |
einen (ine-en) |
eine |
ein |
| Dat. |
einem (ine-em) |
einer(ine-er) |
einem |
| Gen. |
eines (ine-es) |
einer |
eines |
Demonstratives (This, That, These, Those)
| This / These |
|
|
That / Those |
|
Masc. |
Fem. |
Neu. |
Pl. |
|
|
Masc. |
Fem. |
Neu. |
Pl. |
| Nom. |
dieser |
diese |
dieses |
diese |
|
|
der |
die |
das |
die |
| Acc. |
diesen |
diese |
dieses |
diese |
|
|
den |
die |
das |
die |
| Dat. |
diesem |
dieser |
diesem |
diesen |
|
|
dem |
der |
dem |
den |
| Gen. |
dieses |
dieser |
dieses |
dieser |
|
|
des |
der |
des |
der |
Note: Jener is an older word found in written German that was used to mean that or those, but today in spoken German the definite articles are used. Dort or da may accompany the definite articles for emphasis. Das is also a universal demonstrative and therefore shows no agreement. Notice the last letter of each of the words above. They correspond to the last letters of the words for the definite articles. Words that are formed this same way are called der-words because they follow the pattern of the der-die-das declension. Other der-words are: jeder-every, and welcher-which. Mancher (many) and solcher (such) are also der-words, but they are used almost always in the plural.
Subject Pronouns
Subject Pronouns
| ich |
ikh |
I |
|
wir |
veer |
we |
| du |
doo |
you (familiar) |
|
ihr |
eer |
you (all) |
| er, sie, es, man |
air, zee, ess, mahn |
he, she, it, one |
|
sie, Sie |
zee |
they, you (formal) |
Note: Man can be translated as one, we, they or the people in general. When referring to nouns as it, you use er for masculine nouns, sie for feminine nouns and es for neuter nouns. However, the definite articles der, die and das can be subsituted for er, sie and es to show more emphasis.
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