Introduction

Nouns are words that name people 👫, places 🌎 , objects 🚌, etc.

In German, nouns are always spelled with a capital, so that they are easier to spot in a text.

In German all nouns are either masculine, feminine or neuter.

Articles

Just like in English, German nouns often follow a little word called an article.

Definite articles:

We use definite articles (der, die, das) when we refer to one specific individual or thing.

• "Der" (the) is an article we use with masculine nouns like der Mann (the man) or der Bus (the bus).
• "Die" (the) is an article for feminine nouns like die Frau (the woman) or die U-bahn (the metro).
• "Das" (the) is an article for neuter nouns like das Baby (the baby) or das Taxi (the taxi).

The definite article in the plural is "die" for all three genders

Indefinite articles:

We use indefinite articles (ein, eine, ein) to introduce something for the first time or talk about non-specific people or things.

"Ein" refers to masculine and neuter words. "Eine" refers to feminine words.

• Masculine: Ein Kaffee kostet 3 €. (A coffee is €3.)
• Feminine: Eine Cola kostet 4 €. (A cola is €4.)
• Neuter: Ein Wasser kostet 2,50 €. (A water is €2.50.)

We don't have an indefinite article in the plural

Cases

A case is the specific function that a set of words can occupy in a sentence.

By functions we mean that these words can either "do" the action in the sentence, be directly or indirectly affected by it, or express possession.

And depending on which of these four functions a set of words has, the spelling of the article and noun changes.

Verbs with only Nominative Case

• Verbs do not required Object
• Subject is in nominative
• Sublect can be a person or a thing
• Verbs without object called intransitiv (itr. in dictionary)

Verbs with Accusative Case

• These verbs connects Subject and Object
• Subject is in nominative
• The object has accusative case
• Object can be a person or a thing
• Verbs with accusativ case called transitiv (tr. in dictionary)

Verbs with Accusative and Dative Cases

• These verbs connect Subject, Object and second person
• Subject is in nominative
• The object has accusative case
• The second person has dative case
• Object can be a person or a thing
• Second person (without preposition) can be only animal or person

Verbs with Dative Cases

• These verbs connect subject and person
• Subject is in nominative
• Subject can be person or thing
• The second person has dative case
• need to be learned

• To this case belongs the following constructions
  • Es tut leid
  • Wie geht es

Nominative Case

Accusative Case

Dative case

Genetiv Case

Plural nouns

In both the nominative and accusative case, the definite article of all nouns changes to "die" in the plural.

• der Vater - die Väter
• die Frau - die Frauen
• das Auto - die Autos

As well as a different article, the plural form of a word usually takes a different ending. There are some patterns, but you will mostly have to memorise which endings go with which words.

A lot of words also change a vowel in their plural form, sometimes as well as having a different word ending. You will have to memorise these words, as they don't follow a certain pattern.

die Mutter - plural: die Mütter

Compound nouns

When you combine two nouns into one, the last noun (e.g. der Platz) determines the gender of the whole word. The gender of the first noun doesn't matter (e.g. der Annaplatz)! 🚂🚃🚃

Created: 22 Aug 2022

Last Update: 17 Sep 2024