German All-in-One For Dummies by Consumer Dummies

Author:Consumer Dummies
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2013-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

You have a grand total of six different definite articles in German and one lonely word, the, in English. Practice makes perfect, so set your standards high for mastering the definite article in German.

The following example sentences show you how definite articles appear in different cases. After each definite article and its noun, the information in parentheses tells you the gender and case of the definite article/noun duo and whether it’s in the plural form. The following abbreviations are in parentheses: m. = masculine; f. = feminine; n. = neuter; pl. = plural; nom. = nominative; acc. = accusative; dat. = dative; and gen. = genitive. These abbreviations refer to the noun that directly precedes them.

Die Mannschaft (f., nom.) spielt sehr gut Fußball. (The team plays soccer very well.)

Brauchst du den Kuli (m., acc.)? (Do you need the pen?)

Das Radio (n., nom.) läuft nicht sehr gut. (The radio doesn’t work very well.)

Ich schreibe der Zeitung (f., dat.) einen Brief. (I’m writing the newspaper a letter.)

Die Mädchen (pl., nom.) sind sehr freundlich. (The girls are very friendly.)

Mir gefällt die Farbe der Krawatte (f., gen.). (I like the color of the tie.)

Kennen Sie die Leute (pl., acc.) da drüben? (Do you know the people over there?)

Understanding nouns with case endings

Fortunately, most German nouns are spelled the same in all four cases. Of course, they have plural endings when necessary, but those endings don’t change from one case to another. Unfortunately, some small groups of commonly used nouns do change spelling, depending on their case in a sentence. This group of nouns includes der Fremde (the stranger) and der Junge (the boy). What distinguishes them from most German nouns is that they both have an -n ending in accusative, dative, and genitive cases.

Here are the groups of nouns that have case endings:

Masculine nouns ending in -e: In German, most nouns ending in -e are feminine, such as die Blume (the flower). The group of masculine nouns that end in -e generally has the case ending -n for all cases except the nominative case; in other words, these nouns add -n in the accusative, dative, and genitive cases. Some nouns of this type are der Franzose (the Frenchman), der Kunde (the customer), and der Verwandte (the relative). Consider this example sentence: Wir empfehlen dem Fremden ein Restaurant. (We recommend a restaurant to the stranger.) Dem Fremden (to the stranger) is the dative case for the noun der Fremde. You simply add the dative case ending -n to der Fremde.

Masculine nouns ending in -e with the genitive case ending -(e)ns: This small subset of masculine nouns ending in -e has the case ending -(e)ns in the genitive case as well as the ending -n for the accusative and dative cases. Two examples of this type of noun are der Name (the name) and der Glaube (the belief). When used in the genitive case, these nouns are des Namens (of the name) and des Glaubens (of the belief).

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