Introduction
Nouns are words that describe beings, places and things e. g. die Frau – the woman, der Bahnhof – the train station, das Wetter – the weather. German nouns can be used with masculine (der), feminine (die) or neuter (das) articles and they are always written with a capital letter. German noun endings change to match the case they are in.
In the following pages, you will learn to use German nouns and articles in their singular and plural forms as well as in the nominative, accusative, dative and genitive cases. At the end of each page, there are exercises so you can practice using nouns and articles in German.
The grammatical gender shows if a noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter. In German, it’s often impossible to tell this just from looking at the noun, but there are some clues that can help you determine the gender.
- Example:
- der Schmetterling
- die Umgebung
- das Märchen
In German, we generally use nouns together with their articles. The article tells us the gender, number, and case of the noun. There are indefinite articles (ein, eine) and definite articles (der, die, das).
- Example:
- ein/der Mann
- eine/die Frau
- ein/das Kind
The plural in German can take the endings n/en, e, r/er, s, or no ending at all. Here we explain when each plural ending should be used.
- Example:
- die Universität – die Universitäten
- die Oma – die Omas
In German, nouns have to be declined. Here, we explain when to use each case and what you need to pay attention to when declining a noun.
- Example:
- der Mann, des Mannes, dem Mann, den Mann
- die Frau, der Frau, der Frau, die Frau
