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German Language

Adjectives are descriptive words like young, old, beautiful etc.
In German, adjectives change their endings depending on whether the person or thing you are referring to is masculine, feminine or neuter and whether singular or plural.
It also depends on the case/kasus of the person or thing you are describing and whether it’s preceded by the definite or indefinite article

Adjectives used after the bestimte artikel / definite article (e.g. Der, Dierser. Welcher, Jeder, Mancher)

Example sentences:

Nominative Der junge Hund hat Hunger. (The young dog is hungry.) Hund is Maskulin, Der Hund
Accusative Ich habe die junge Katze gefüttert. (I’ve fed the young cat.) Katze is Feminin
Die Katze
Dative Er hilft dem jungen Kind beim Anziehen. (He helps the young child to get dressed.) Kind is Neutrum
Das Kind
Genitive Der Hund des jungen Mannes ist sehr krank. (The dog of the young man is very ill Man ist Maskulin
Der Man

Adjectives used after the unbestimte artikel / indefinite article (e.g. Ein, Kein, Mein, Sein, Irgendein)

The Ein, Kein follows the same rules as the unbestimte artikel,
For Der Mann
Nominativ – Ein Junger Mann
Akkusativ – Einen Jungen Mann
Dativ – Einem Jungen Mann
Genitiv – Eines Jungen Mann

Example Sentences:

Nominativ Ein ehrgeiziger Fußballspieler trainiert täglich mehrere Stunden. Fußballspieler is Muskulin
Akkusativ Der Trainer beobachtet einen ehrgeizigen Fußballspieler. Fußballspieler is Muskulin
Dativ Ein Manager bietet einem ehrgeizigen Fußballspieler einen Profivertrag an. Fußballspieler is Muskulin
Genitiv Die Freundin eines ehrgeizigen Fußballspielers freut sich mit ihm. Plural

Adjectives used with no Article

When there is no Article, you “add” the artikel with the Adjective. The rules are mostly the same as for the Definite Article (The – Der, Die, Das). Genetiv is different for Masculine and Neutral, in stead of – des it is en
For Der Mann
Nominativ – Junger Mann
Akkusativ – Jungen Mann
Dativ – Jungem Mann
Genitiv – Jungen Mann

Example sentences:

Nominative Gute Freunde sind wichtig. (Good friends are important.) Die Freunde
Accusative Ich trinke gerne guten Wein (I like drinking good wine.) Der Wein
Dative Zu gutem Wein esse ich gerne Käse. (I like eating cheese with good wine.) Der Wein
Genitive Die Hilfe guter Menschen ist wichtig (The help of good people is important.) Plural

An article is basically an adjective. Like adjectives, articles modify nouns. In English, there are two articles: the and a/an.

  • The is used to refer to specific or particular nouns
  • a/an is used to modify non-specific or non-particular nouns.

The is a definite article and a/an is an indefinite article.

In Afrikaans we use “die” and “‘n”

Bestimmte artikel / Definite article

In English we use “the” and in Afrikaans we use “die” 

Kasus (Case) Maskulinum (der) Femininum (die) Neutrum (das) Plural
Nominativ der die das die
Akkusativ den die das die
Dativ dem der dem den
Genitiv Des (-s, -es) der des(-s, -es) der

In Genitiv, the Nomen gets an s or es at the end for Maskulinum and Neutrum e.g. Der Hund des Mannes

Gender

It would be best if you learned the gender of each new word (Noun) you learn in German. This is not always easy to do and we hope the list below will be of some help.  These lists give an indication of which article to use for some words e.g all Months are masculine (der) and most words ending in “e” are feminine (die).DerWörter

Unbestimte artikel/ Indefinite article

English –  a(n)
In German, the word “a” is “ein”.
The ending will change depending on gender and also on the case of the sentence
Also applies to Mein, Dein, Sein, Kein

Kasus (Case) Maskulinum (der) Femininum (die) Neutrum (das)
Nominativ ein eine ein
Akkusativ einen eine ein
Dativ einem einer einem
Genitiv eines einer eines

Related content

Verbs

Verbs are actions or a state of being. An example of an Action is, I eat. An example of a state is, I am hungry

German Grammar and Language

Here are some links to German Grammar information.It is a compilation of information I gathered over time. I hope you find it useful. Please notify

There are four cases in the German language:
Nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.
The cases are an important part of German grammar as they are responsible for the endings of adjectives, indefinite articles and when to use which personal pronoun.

German for English Speakers

Nominativ

Subject of the sentence / verb
Person or thing doing the action.
Who (wer) or What (was) is doing something?

English German
The man eats an apple Der Mann isst einen Apfel

Who is eating an apple?
Der Mann is the Nominative part (subject) of the sentence

Akkusativ

The direct object of the verb – Person, animal or thing which is directly affected by the action of the verb.
The questions for the accusative are “whom” (“wen”) or “what” (“was”)
The accusative is also used after certain prepositions ( bis, für, gegen, ohne, um, durch), see list below
Is used after specific verbs and when we have 2 people/things in a sentence

English German
The man eats an apple Der Mann isst einen Apfel

What does the man eat? – Einen Apfel
Einen Apfel is the Accusative part (object) of the sentence

Dativ

Indirect object
Person or thing indirectly impacted by the action. In English this is often indicated by the words “to” or “for.”
In most situations you can also ask to whom (“wem”) or for whom.
The dative case is also used after certain prepositions, see list below
Not all sentences have Dative part.

English German
I give the woman a book Ich gebe der Frau ein Buch

To Whom is the book given? – Der Frau
Der Frau is Dative.
Frau is usually Die Frau, but in Dativ it becomes der Frau. See Articles

Genitive / Genativ

Shows possession. Das Auto meines Bruders. My brother’s car (the car of my brother). In English we use “of” or ” ‘s”.
The genitive case is used to show, that something belongs to someone. You’re able to ask: Whose…? The genitive case is also used after certain prepositions

Here are some links to German Grammar information.
It is a compilation of information I gathered over time. I hope you find it useful. Please notify us if you find any errors.

Where to learn German

On this page you can find links to off-and online resources to learn German. There is also a list of Apps.

Learning German

There are several approaches to learn German, all of which can help you achieve your language learning goals. You can opt for convenient online sites that offer a range of language courses or download mobile apps that make learning on-the-go a breeze. Alternatively, you can choose to attend classes where

Basic Grammar

Basic German Grammar

Here is a short introduction to the structure of sentences. It will help you understand what is the difference between a subject, object, preposition, verb and articles English

Kasus / Cases

Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ and Genativ

Artikel

Bestimmt und Unbestimmt

Gender

It would be best if you learned the gender of each new word (Noun) you learn in German. This is not always easy to do and we hope the list below will be of some help.  These lists give an indication of which article to use for some words e.g

Adjektivendung

In English it is just red, in German, it can be rote, roter, roten, rotes or rotem. This page has some tables and explanations to help you.

Adjektivendungen

Adjectives are descriptive words like young, old, beautiful etc. In German, adjectives change their endings depending on whether the person or thing you are referring to is masculine, feminine or neuter and whether singular or plural. It also depends on the case/kasus of the person or thing you are describing

Pronouns

Pronouns

Pronouns are words that take the place of a noun. Words like I, me, she, you, it, herself. Additionally, you get Relative and possessive pronounsRelative pronouns: which, that, whose, whoever, whomever, who and whom,

Verbs

Verbs

Verbs are actions or a state of being. An example of an Action is, I eat. An example of a state is, I am hungry or I have pain. In Afrikaans you would say “Ek eet” , “Ek is honger” or “ek het pyn” The verbs change their form depending on the Pronoun before the verb. These are words like I, me, she, you, it, they, and us. In English we use I am

Tips

  • A sentence can have a Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object. Also important is the Verb (action). Within one sentence you can have different Cases
  • The Subject is always in the Nominative Case.
  • The Direct Object (What/Who or Wen?) is mostly in the Accusative Case (may also depend on the Präposition or Verb).
  • The Indirect Object (To Whom? or Wem?) is mostly in the Dative Case (may also depend on the Präposition or Verb)
  • In a sentence with just a Subject and Direct object, the basic word order is Subject -Verb – Accusative (Der Mann (subject) isst den Apfel (direct object))
  • in a sentence with dative and accusative case the basic word order is: Subject-Verb-Dative-Accusative (Das Kind (subject) gibt der Mutter (indirect object) einen Kuss (direct object).  Of course, there is an exception when two pronouns are involved eg Ich schenke ihn ihr see more here. The normal rule is Dative before accusative,  If both the dative and the accusative objects are pronouns, then accusative before dative

Here is a short introduction to the structure of sentences. It will help you understand what is the difference between a subject, object, preposition, verb and articles

English German Description Examples
Article Artikel Comes before a noun Definite (Bestimmte) – The (Die Der Das)
Indefinite (Unbestimmte) – a/an (Ein, Eine, Einen..)
Noun Nomen A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea Car, house, girl
Always capitalised in German Auto, Haus
Subject Subjekt Noun – The person or thing doing something  
Object   Objekt Noun – Having something done to it  
    Direct (Akkusativ) The direct object is the receiver of the action
A direct object answers the question “what?” or “who?” In German Wen?
    Indirect (Dativ) An indirect object answers the question “to whom?”, “for whom?” In German Wem?
Pronouns   Pronomen A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. I, me, he, she, herself, you, it, that, they, each, few, many, who, whoever, whose, someone, everybody
Possessive Pronouns Possessivpronomen Words we use to show possession. Mine, yours, his
Verb Verb Action Eat, love, paint, write
Adjective Adjektiv Describes the Noun or Pronoun Blue , big, clean, old.
The young boy plays outside
Adverb Adverb An adverb describes a verb or anything apart from a noun and pronoun. How? When? How much? How often?  E.g. how does the boy sing The boy sings loudly
Prepositions Präpositionen   A preposition is a word or set of words that indicates location In, near, beside, on top of, behind. with

Visual Grammar – German