German declension
German declension is the paradigm that German uses to define all the ways articles, adjectives and sometimes nouns can change their form to reflect their role in the sentence: subject, object, etc. Declension allows speakers to mark a difference between subjects, direct objects, indirect objects and possessives by changing the form of the word—and/or its associated article—instead of indicating this meaning through word order or prepositions. As a result, German can take a much more fluid approach to word order without the meaning being obscured. In English, a simple sentence must be written in strict word order. This sentence cannot be expressed in any other word order than how it is written here without changing the meaning. A translation of the same sentence from German to English would appear rather different -subject eats and can be expressed with a variety of word order -directobject is eaten by with little or no change in meaning.
As a fusional language, German marks nouns, pronouns, articles, and adjectives to distinguish case, number, and gender. For example, all German adjectives have several different forms. The adjective neu, for example, can be written in five different ways depending on the gender of the noun that it modifies, whether the noun is singular or plural, and the role of the noun in the sentence. English lacks such declinations, meaning that an adjective can be written in only one form.
Modern High German distinguishes between four cases—nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative—and three grammatical genders—feminine, masculine, and neuter. Nouns may also be either singular or plural; in the plural, one declension is used regardless of gender―meaning that plural can be treated as a fourth "gender" for the purposes of declining articles and adjectives. However, the nouns themselves retain several ways of forming plurals which often, but not always, correspond with the word's gender and structure in the singular. For example, many feminine nouns which, in the singular, end in e, like die Reise, form the plural by adding -n: die Reisen. Many neuter or masculine nouns ending in a consonant, like das Blatt or der Baum form plurals by a change of vowel and appending -er or -e: die Blätter and die Bäume . Historically, these and several further plural inflections recall the noun declension classes of Proto-Germanic, but in much reduced form.
Articles
Definite article
The definite articles correspond to the English "the".| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | der | die | das | die |
| Accusative | den | die | das | die |
| Dative | dem | der | dem | den |
| Genitive | des | der | des | der |
Indefinite article
The indefinite articles correspond to English "a", "an". Note: ein is also a numeral which corresponds to English "one".Ein has no plural; as in English, the plural indefinite article is void, as in "There are cows in the field.".
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nominative | ein | eine | ein |
| Accusative | einen | eine | ein |
| Dative | einem | einer | einem |
| Genitive | eines | einer | eines |
Adjectival pronouns
Certain adjectival pronouns also decline like der: all-, dies-, jed-, jen-, manch-, solch-, welch-. These are sometimes referred to as der-words.The general declension pattern is as shown in the following table:
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | -er | -e | -es | -e |
| Accusative | -en | -e | -es | -e |
| Dative | -em | -er | -em | -en |
| Genitive | -es | -er | -es | -er |
Examples:
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | dieser | diese | dieses | diese |
| Accusative | diesen | diese | dieses | diese |
| Dative | diesem | dieser | diesem | diesen |
| Genitive | dieses | dieser | dieses | dieser |
Adjectival possessive pronouns and kein decline similarly to the article ein.
The general declension pattern is as shown in the following table:
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | – | -e | – | -e |
| Accusative | -en | -e | – | -e |
| Dative | -em | -er | -em | -en |
| Genitive | -es | -er | -es | -er |
Examples:
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | kein | keine | kein | keine |
| Accusative | keinen | keine | kein | keine |
| Dative | keinem | keiner | keinem | keinen |
| Genitive | keines | keiner | keines | keiner |
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | ihr | ihre | ihr | ihre |
| Accusative | ihren | ihre | ihr | ihre |
| Dative | ihrem | ihrer | ihrem | ihren |
| Genitive | ihres | ihrer | ihres | ihrer |
Euer is slightly irregular: when it has an ending, the e can be dropped and endings are added to the root eur-, e.g. dative masculine eurem.
Nouns
Only the following nouns are declined according to case:- Masculine weak nouns gain an -n at the end in cases other than the singular nominative. e.g. der Student, des Studenten.
- A handful of masculine "mixed" nouns, the most common of which is Name, gain an -ns at the end in the singular genitive, e.g. der Name, des Namens, and otherwise behave exactly like weak nouns.
- The genitive case of other nouns of masculine or neuter gender is formed by adding either -s or -es, e.g. das Bild, des Bildes.
- Nouns in plural that do not already end in -n or -s gain an -n in the dative case. e.g. der Berg, die Berge, den Bergen. Most of these nouns are either masculine or neuter, but there is a group of feminine nouns that are declined in this way too. While this group comprises only a small minority of feminine nouns, it includes some of the most oft-used nouns in the language. e.g. die Hand, die Hände, den Händen.
- The irregular neuter noun Herz behaves almost exactly like the masculine "mixed" nouns, except that it is not inflected in the singular accusative and inflection in the singular dative is optional especially in spoken German, e.g. das Herz, das Herz, dem Herzen or dem Herz, des Herzens.
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Genitive case for personal pronouns is currently considered archaic and is used only in certain archaic expressions like "ich bedarf seiner". This is not to be confused with [|possessive adjectives].| Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Genitive |
| ich – I | mich – me | mir – to/for me | meiner – of me |
| du – you | dich – you | dir – to/for you | deiner – of you |
| er – he | ihn – him | ihm – to/for him | seiner – of him |
| sie – she | sie – her | ihr – to/for her | ihrer – of her |
| es – it | es – it | ihm – to/for it | seiner – of it |
| wir – we | uns – us | uns – to/for us | unser – of us |
| ihr – you | euch – you | euch – to/for you | euer – of you |
| Sie – you | Sie – you | Ihnen – to/for you | Ihrer – of you |
| sie – they | sie – them | ihnen – to/for them | ihrer – of them |
Note that unlike in English, "er" and "sie" can refer to any masculine or feminine noun, not just persons, while "es" can refer to a person described by a neuter noun: "das Kind, es..."; "das Mädchen, es..."
Interrogative pronouns
| Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Genitive | |
| Personal | wer | wen | wem | wessen |
| Impersonal | was | was |
- Generally, prepositions that need to be followed by either case merge with "was" to form new words such as "wovon" or "weswegen".
Relative pronouns
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | der | die | das | die |
| Accusative | den | die | das | die |
| Dative | dem | der | dem | denen |
| Genitive | dessen | deren | dessen | deren |
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | welcher | welche | welches | welche |
| Accusative | welchen | welche | welches | welche |
| Dative | welchem | welcher | welchem | welchen |
| Genitive | welches | welcher | welches | welcher |
Possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns are treated as articles in German and decline the same way as kein; see [|Indefinite article] above.Demonstrative pronouns
These may be used in place of personal pronouns to provide emphasis, as in the sentence "Den sehe ich". 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".The table is the same as for [|relative pronouns].
Reflexive pronouns
are used when a subject and object are the same, as in Ich wasche mich "I wash myself".| Nominative | Accusative | Dative |
| ich – I | mich – myself | mir – to/for myself |
| du – you | dich – yourself | dir – to/for yourself |
| er/sie/es/man – he/she/it/one | sich – himself/herself/itself/oneself | sich – to/for himself/herself/itself/oneself |
| wir – we | uns – ourselves | uns – to/for ourselves |
| ihr – you | euch – yourselves | euch – to/for yourselves |
| Sie – you | sich – yourself/yourselves | sich – to/for yourself/yourselves |
| sie – they | sich – themselves | sich – to/for themselves |
Indefinite pronouns
The pronoun man refers to a generic person, and is usually translated as . It is equivalent to the French pronoun on.| Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Genitive |
| man – one/you/they | einen – one/you/them | einem – to/for one/you/them | sein – one's/your/their |
Adjectives
Predicate adjectives
s are undeclined.Attributive adjectives
Attributive adjectives use the following declension patterns.Strong inflection
Strong declension is used when:- there is no preceding article; or
- the preceding article does not fully indicate the case, gender, and number of the noun.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | -er | -e | -es | -e |
| Accusative | -en | -e | -es | -e |
| Dative | -em | -er | -em | -en |
| Genitive | -en | -er | -en | -er |
Here is an example.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | schwieriger Fall | rote Tinte | schönes Haus | alkoholfreie Getränke |
| Accusative | schwierigen Fall | rote Tinte | schönes Haus | alkoholfreie Getränke |
| Dative | schwierigem Fall' | roter Tinte | schönem Haus' | alkoholfreien Getränken |
| Genitive | schwierigen Falls | roter Tinte | schönen Hauses | alkoholfreier Getränke |
Note that the ending for genitive masculine and neuter is -en. This is a source of confusion for learners, who typically assume it is -es, and also native speakers, who interpret some of the less common definite articles as adjectives with no article, to be declined strongly.
Weak inflection
Weak declension is used when the article itself clearly indicates case, gender, and number.| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | -e | -e | -e | -en |
| Accusative | -en | -e | -e | -en |
| Dative | -en | -en | -en | -en |
| Genitive | -en | -en | -en | -en |
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nom. | welcher schwierige Fall | solche rote Tinte | dieses schöne Haus | alle alkoholfreien Getränke |
| Acc. | welchen schwierigen Fall | solche rote Tinte | dieses schöne Haus | alle alkoholfreien Getränke |
| Dat. | welchem schwierigen Fall' | solcher roten Tinte | diesem schönen Haus' | allen alkoholfreien Getränken |
| Gen. | welches schwierigen Falls | solcher roten Tinte | dieses schönen Hauses | aller alkoholfreien Getränke |
Mixed inflection
Source:Mixed declension is used when there is a preceding indefinite article, or possessive determiner.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | -er | -e | -es | -en |
| Accusative | -en | -e | -es | -en |
| Dative | -en | -en | -en | -en |
| Genitive | -en | -en | -en | -en |
Mixed inflection is the same as weak inflection, except for the masculine nominative, and the neuter nominative and accusative, which are the same as in strong inflection.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| Nominative | mein schwieriger Fall | seine rote Tinte | euer schönes Haus | keine alkoholfreien Getränke |
| Accusative | meinen schwierigen Fall | seine rote Tinte | euer schönes Haus | keine alkoholfreien Getränke |
| Dative | meinem schwierigen Fall' | seiner roten Tinte | eurem schönen Haus' | keinen alkoholfreien Getränken |
| Genitive | meines schwierigen Falls | seiner roten Tinte | eures schönen Hauses | keiner alkoholfreien Getränke |