GERMAN RELATED CONTENT | WIKIPEDIA |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German declension |
Nom. | Acc. | Dat. | Gen. | |
Masculine | der | den | dem | des |
Neuter | das | das | dem | des |
Feminine | die | die | der | der |
Plural | die | die | den | der |
These correspond to English "a", "an", or "one". Note that there is no plural.
Nom. | Acc. | Dat. | Gen. | |
Masculine | ein | einen | einem | eines |
Neuter | ein | ein | einem | eines |
Feminine | eine | eine | einer | einer |
Only the following nouns are declined according to case:
There is a dative singular marking -e associated with strong masculine or neuter nouns, e.g. der Tod and das Bad, but this is nearly obsolete in contemporary usage, with the exception of fossilized phrases, such as zum Tode verurteilt ("sentenced to death"), or titles of creative works, e.g. Venus im Bade ("Venus In The Bath").
Genitive case for pronouns is currently considered archaic and is used only in certain archaic expressions like "ich bedarf seiner" (I need him)
Nom. | Acc. | Dat. | Gen. |
ich - I | mich - me | mir - to/for me | meiner |
du - you (informal singular) | dich - you | dir - to/for you | deiner |
er - he | ihn - him | ihm - to/for him | seiner |
sie - she | sie - her | ihr - to/for her | ihrer |
es - it | es - it | ihm - to/for it | seiner |
wir - we | uns - us | uns - to/for us | unserer |
ihr - you (informal plural) | euch - you | euch - to/for you | eurer |
Sie - you (formal singular & plural) | Sie - you | Ihnen - to/for you | Ihrer |
sie - they | sie - them | ihnen - to/for them | ihrer |
Nom. | Acc. | Dat. | Gen. | |
Personal ("who/whom") | wer | wen | wem | wessen |
Impersonal ("what") | was | was | | |
Nom. | Acc. | Dat. | Gen. | |
Masculine | der | den | dem | dessen |
Neuter | das | das | dem | dessen |
Feminine | die | die | der | deren |
Plural | die | die | denen | deren |
All possessive pronouns conform to the same inflectional paradigm:
Nom. | Acc. | Dat. | Gen. | |
Masculine | - | -en | -em | -es |
Neuter | - | - | -em | -es |
Feminine | -e | -e | -er | -er |
Plural | -e | -e | -en | -er |
To illustrate, here is the complete paradigm of mein ("my").
Nom. | Acc. | Dat. | Gen. | |
Masculine | mein | meinen | meinem | meines |
Neuter | mein | mein | meinem | meines |
Feminine | meine | meine | meiner | meiner |
Plural | meine | meine | meinen | meiner |
These may be used in place of personal pronouns to provide emphasis, as in the sentence "Den sehe ich" ("I see that"). Also note the word ordering: den corresponds to "that", and ich corresponds to "I". Placing the object at the beginning of the sentence places emphasis on it. English, as a generally non-declined language, does not normally show similar behavior, although it is sometimes possible to place the object at the front of a sentence for similar emphasis, as in: "Him I see, but I don't see John".
Nom. | Acc. | Dat. | Gen. | |
Masculine | der | den | dem | dessen |
Neuter | das | das | dem | dessen |
Feminine | die | die | der | deren |
Plural | die | die | denen | deren |
Used when a subject and object are the same, as in "Ich wasche mich" = "I wash myself"
Accusative | Dative |
mich - myself | mir - to/for myself |
dich - yourself | dir - to/for yourself |
sich - himself/herself/itself/oneself | sich - to/for himself/herself/itself/oneself |
uns - ourselves | uns - to/for ourselves |
euch - yourselves | euch - to/for yourselves |
sich - yourself/yourselves (formal) | sich - to/for yourself/yourselves |
sich - themselves | sich - to/for themselves |
Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Genitive |
man - one/you/they | einen - one/you/them | einem - to/for one/you/them | sein - one's/your/their |
Predicate adjectives are undeclined. Other adjectives use the following declension patterns.
This is used when there is no preceding article.
Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Plural | |
Nom. | -er | -es | -e | -e |
Acc. | -en | -es | -e | -e |
Dat. | -em | -em | -er | -en |
Gen. | -en | -en | -er | -er |
This is used when there is a preceding definite article ("der-word"). These include jen- ("that, those"), solch- ("such a"), manch- ("many, some"), jed- ("each, every"), all- ("all"), dies- ("this, these"), and welch- ("which").
Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Plural | |
Nom. | -e | -e | -e | -en |
Acc. | -en | -e | -e | -en |
Dat. | -en | -en | -en | -en |
Gen. | -en | -en | -en | -en |
The so-called "mixed" endings are not distinct, prescriptive endings but rather descriptive of the language in practice. The gender of a noun must be indicated by some means, and because the masculine and neuter forms of the indefinite article and possessive pronouns are identical, the adjective must indicate the gender of the word. For example, "Ein tolles Auto". Without the adjective ending "es", it would not be clear if "Auto" were a masculine or neuter noun.
Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Plural | |
Nom. | -er | -es | -e | -en |
Acc. | -en | -es | -e | -en |
Dat. | -en | -en | -en | -en |
Gen. | -en | -en | -en | -en |
Mixed inflection is same as weak inflection, except bold suffixes (masculine nominative, neuter nominative and accusative) that are same as strong inflection.
Many German locality names have an attributive adjective associated with them which ends in -er, for example Berliner for Berlin andHamburger for Hamburg, which are not marked for case but always end in -er. If the place name ends in -en, like Göttingen, the -er usually replaces the terminal -en.
This text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
GERMAN LANGUAGE RESOURCES |
LONWEB.ORG is a property of Casiraghi Jones Publishing srl
Owners: Roberto Casiraghi e Crystal Jones
Address: Piazzale Cadorna 10 - 20123 Milano - Italy
Tel. +39-02-78622122 email:
P.IVA e C. FISCALE 11603360154 • REA MILANO 1478561
Other company websites:
www.englishgratis.com
• www.scuolitalia.com