German Grammer

Nouns
- Nouns = person/place/thing

- The definite article and indefinite article

o Definite article=
 Goes before a noun (person/place/thing)
 Indicates that the noun can be identified specifically e.g.
 ‘the’ or ‘this’ e.g.
o I took “the” suitcase on holiday
o Indefinite article=
 Goes before a noun (person/place/thing)
 BUT indicates that the noun can NOT be identified (could be one of
many rather than a specific item) e.g.
 ‘a’ or ‘an’ e.g.
o I took “a” suitcase on holiday
- There are 4 cases in German:
o Nominative
o Accusative
o Genitive
o Dative

- Nominative =
o The way/form in which the nouns are written in a dictionary (e.g. der Hund,
die Katze, das Kaninchen)
o This case (the nominative case) is used for the subject of the sentence (i.e. the
person/thing doing the action in the sentence) e.g.
 Das Mädchen singt das Lied (the girl is singing the song)
 Ich kaufe Sportschuhe (I buy trainers)
 Meine Tante wohnt in Ulm (My auntie lived in Ulm)
o This case is ALWAYS used after:
 sein (to be)
 werden (to become)
 heißen (to be called)
(so If the sentence is about anyone/thing that is/was/will be/is called
ANYTHING) e.g.
 Er ist mein Freund (he is my friend)
 Einstein war ein genialer Physiker (Einstein was a brilliant
physicist)
 Mein Lehrer heißt Herr Klinsmann (My eacher is called Mr
Klinsmann)
…as they are all the same person and all the subject (he is/my friend,
Einstein/the physicist, my teacher/my Klinsmann)
o The definite and indefinite articles REMAIN THE SAME and DO NOT
CHANGE in the nominative case e.g.
 Definite Indefinite

Masculine der ein/kein

Feminine die eine/keine

Neuter das ein/kein

Plural die ––/keine

 NOTE:Indefinite = ‘a’/ ‘an’ and is is NOT possible to have a plural for

the indefinite article ‘a’ as you can not say ‘a things’. BUT you can
have a negative plural, keine, meaning ‘no things’.
 The definite of the feminine and plural are both die. And they both
have the same indefinite negative, ‘keine’.
 The indefinite of the masculine and neuter are both ein//kein
Masculine der, ein/kein
Feminine die, eine/keine
Neuter das, ein/kein
Plural die, -/keine

o The other nominative words are as follows:

PERSONAL PRONOUNS
German English

ich I

du you (singular, informal)

sie she

er he

es it

wir we

Ihr you (plural, informal)

Sie you (singular or plural, formal)

sie they
OTHER NOMINATIVE PRONOUNS

- mein – my
- dein – your (informal, singular)
- sein – his
- ihr – her
- unser – our
- euer – your (informal, plural)
- Ihr – your (formal, singular and plural)
- ihr – their

- Accusative case
o Used for the direct object of the sentence (i.e. the person/place/thing having
the ACTION DONE TO IT by the subject of the sentence) e.g.
 Das Mädchen singt das Lied = the girl is singing the song
 Das lied = the song is the object/accusative because the song is
being sung by the subject (the girl/nominative)
 Meine Tante mag die Schokolade = my aunt likes the chocolate
 Die Schokolade = the object/accusative as it is being liked by
the subject/nominative (my aunt)
o This is the ways in which the Definite and indefinite articles change in the
accusative case:
Definite Indefinite

Masculine den einen/keinen

Feminine die eine/keine

Neuter das ein/kein

Plural die ––/keine

 NOTE: There are only small changes from the nominative case:
 Masculine der, ein/kein = den, einen/keinen
 The rest remains the same (aka, only the masculine articles
change)

 These words, remain otherwise, unchanged from their

nominative cases:
- mein – my
- dein – your (informal, singular)
- sein – his
- ihr – her
- unser – our
- euer – your (informal, plural)
- Ihr – your (formal, singular and plural)
- ihr – their
 Only the masculine form will be different e.g.
o Ich habe den Zwiebelkuchen bestellt (I ordered the
onion tart)
o Ich habe einen Zwiebelkuchen bestellt ( I ordered an
onion tart)
- Genitive case
o Shows possession i.e.
 who something belongs to.
o In English we indicate either:
 with an apostrophe (the school’s headteacher) BUT THERE ARE NO
APOSTROPHES IN GERMAN
 Using possessive language like ‘of the’ (the headteacher of the school)
o The definite and indefinite articles change thusly…
Definite Indefinite

Masculine des eines/keines

Feminine der einer/keiner

Neuter des eines/keines

Plural der ––––/keiner

o AND you need to as an -s or -es to the genitive noun when it’s masculine or
neuter
o Also, again, these words would change accordingly…
o
- mein – my
- dein – your (informal, singular)
- sein – his
- ihr – her
- unser – our
- euer – your (informal, plural)
- Ihr – your (formal, singular and plural)
- ihr – their
o NOTE: So…
 The masculine has changed from ‘der’(nominative) to ‘den’
(accusative) to ‘des’ when in the genitive (showing possession).
 The indefinite changes in a like manner to become
‘eines/keines’
 Therefore it went from ein/kein, to einer/keener, to eines/keines
 The feminine remained unchanged as ‘die’ when nominative and
accusative, to now being ‘der’ like the masculine case usually is
 So females become ‘masculine’ when taking possession of
things…
 AND then goes a step further by the indefinite changing to
einer/keiner
 The neuter follows the masculine by also becomes des, eines/keines
 So, the journey of neuter goes from:
o Nominative and Accusative: Das (individual) &
ein/kein (like the masculine form)
 Note, the female nominative and accusative
cases remained unchanged too
 Like it did in the nominative, copied the
indefinite articles of the masculine case
 The plural follows the female suit again by also being der, -/keiner (as,
again, you can not say ‘a things’)
 The plural is always has the same definite and indefinite cases
as the feminine, except is doesn’t have a ‘a’(eine/r) word
o So, in practice…
 Die Handschuhe des Kindes (the childs gloves)
 The child posseses the gloves = the child, being the possessor,
is the one in the genitive case
 The gender of Kind is das
o Das = des in the genitive
o As das = neuter, -es is to be added to the noun Kind =
des Kindes (of the child)
o On the plus side…
 If you we an -s or -es at the end of a noun, it is a clue that the sentence
might be genitive (masculine or neuter)
 And is you see a feminine noun (Frau, Oma, Tante, Schwester) with a
‘der’ in front of it, it is genitive too as die changer to der
o ALSO the genitive case is used after certain prepositions e.g.
 wegen – because of
 trotz – in spite of
 während – during
 außerhalb – outside
 innerhalb – inside
  (an)statt – instead of
 Maybe because circumstance/time/location/decision own the
situation/sentances reason for being

- Dative case
o Used for the indirect object of a sentence
 Ie. The person or thing to or for whom something is done e.g.
 If ‘The pupil gave the teacher a presents’…
o The pupil is the subject/nominative
o The present is the direct object/accusative
o The teacher is the indirect object/dative component to
whom the action/present giving is happening to
 Ich have meiner Freundin eine E-mail geschickt (I sent my
friend an email)
o I am the subject/nominative
o The email is the direct object being given/accusative
o My friend is the indirect object to whom the email is
being sent/dative
o The endings are as follows:

Definite Indefinite

Masculine dem einem/keinem

Feminine der einer/keiner

Neuter dem einem/keinem

Plural den* –––/keinen

o ADDITIONALLY, in the plural, one must add -n or -en to the end of the noun
that follows
 So, the Feminine is the only case that has stayed the same as the
genitive case
 So, all up…
o The feminine remained unchanged as ‘die’ when
nominative and accusative, to…
o now being ‘der’ , ‘einer/keiner’ in both the genitive and
the dative cases
 The Masculine and Neuter are the same as each other but have indeed
changed to dem, einem/keinem
 So, in conclusion the masculine cases have gone from…
o ‘der’(nominative) to ‘den’ (accusative) to ‘des’
(genitive), then ‘dem’ (dative)
o Therefore it went from ein/kein, to einer/keiner, to
eines/keines, then einem/keinem
 Then the Neuter, in conclusion went from…
o Nominative and Accusative: Das (individual) &
ein/kein (like the masculine form)
o Then, like the masculine case, to des, eines/keines
(genitive) then dem, einem/keinem (dative)
 The plural case is similar to the male accusative, except for the plural
‘a’ not existing
 The plural case, in conclusion went like, so…
o Followed the feminine form die,-/keine in both the
nominative and accusative form
o Then followed the femine again in the genitive with
der,-keiner
o Then struck out on its own with a den, -keinen in the
dative.
o Again, these words change in accordance to the definite and indefinite
articles…
- mein – my
- dein – your (informal, singular)
- sein – his
- ihr – her
- unser – our
- euer – your (informal, plural)
- ihr – their
- Ihr – your (formal, singular and plural)

o ALSO, like the genitive case, there are several verbs (doing words) that
ALWAYS used with the dative case e.g.
 danken – to thank (to give thanks to)
 folgen – to follow
 glauben – to believe (to give belief to)
 helfen – to help (to give help to)
 because it is referring to doing an action to/for an indirect
object/person/dative???
o There are also some prepositions that are followed with the dative case…
 aus – out of, made from
 außer – except for
 bei – at the house of, at
 gegenüber – opposite
 mit – with, by (transport)
 nach – after, to (a place)
 seit – since
 von – from, of, by
  zu – to

o Personal pronouns in the dative case…

German English

mir me

dir you (singular, informal)

ihm him

ihr her

ihm it

uns us

euch you (plural, informal)

Ihnen you (singular or plural, formal)

ihnen them

- In Summation…

- Definite article

Nom. Acc. Gen. Dat.

Masculine der den des dem

Feminine die die der der

Neuter das das des dem

Plural die die der den

- Indefinite article
 Nom. Acc. Gen. Dat.

Masculine ein einen eines einem

Feminine eine eine einer einer

Neuter ein ein eines einem

Plural keine keine keiner keinen

- Possessive pronouns like mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer, ihr and
also alle, beide are declined in the same way as (follow the same pattern as)
the indefinite article.