'a books' or 'a children' in English, it is The indefinite article ein and all of its inflectional variations Indefinite articles can also precede a noun and specify its case. Just like the definite articles, these der-words precede nouns and indicate Is that in the neuter nominative and accusative, the article ending In which the nouns themselves altered their suffixes to signifyĪ number of words behave in their case inflection like the definiteīecause these words are declined much like the definite articles, These endings are vestiges of an older system of case inflection Nouns with more than one syllable just add -s. The plural form already ends in -n or -s.Ģ) Masculine and 3) neuter nouns in the genitive case add an The plural noun itself has an altered form:Īlso note that there are three instances where a noun itself takesġ) Nouns in the dative plural add an -n, unless

The noun is usually identifiable as either feminine or plural, because The plural form of the definite article is identical to the feminineįorm in the nominative and accusative cases ( die). No matter theĬase or the inflected form, the definite article still means the. When a noun is used in a differentĬase, the form of its definite article may change. These are the nominativeĬase forms of the definite articles. Shown by way of an accompanying definite article: der (masculine),ĭie (feminine), or das (neuter). You have already seen that the genders of German nouns are typically That precede it, words like the, a, an, this, every, etc. To identify the case of a noun, one normally must look at the determiners Each case signifies a specific range of functions. There are four cases in German: Nominative, Accusative, Dative,Īnd Genitive. That is, whether it is acting as the subject or an object, or whether The case of a noun or pronoun signifies its function in the sentence,

When used in a sentence, German nouns and pronouns take cases.

German grammar chart