German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

s are used similarly to the

English articles The articles in English are the definite article '' the'' and the indefinite articles '' a'' and ''an''. The definite article is used when the speaker believes that the listener knows the identity of the noun's referent (because it is obvious, ...

, ''a'' and ''the''. However, they are declined differently according to the

number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...

and case of their nouns.

Declension

The inflected forms depend on the number, the case and the gender of the corresponding noun. German articleslike adjectives and pronounshave the same plural forms for all three genders.

Indefinite article

This article, ''ein-'', is used equivalently to the word ''a'' in English. Like its English equivalent (though unlike Spanish), it has no direct form for a plural; in this situation a range of alternatives such as ''einige'' (some; several) or ''manche'' (some) would be used. The same endings are used for the negative indefinite article-like word (''kein-''), and the adjectival possessive pronouns (alias: possessive adjectives, possessive determiners), ''mein-'' (my), ''dein-'' (your ''(singular)''), ''sein-'' (his), ''ihr-'' (her and their), ''unser-'' (our), ''euer/eur-'' (your ''(plural)'', if addressing a group), ''Ihr-'' (your if addressing an authority figure, always capitalised).

Definite article

This table gives endings for the definite article, equivalent to English ''the''. The so-called "der words" (''Der-Wort'') take similar endings. Examples are demonstrative pronouns (''dies-'', ''jen-'') (this, that), the relative pronoun (''welch-'') (which), ''jed-'' (every), ''manch-'' (many), ''solch-'' (such). * Note that this is essentially the same as the indefinite article table, but with the masculine nominative -er, and the neuter nominative and accusative -es.

"Possessive article-like" pronouns

Under some circumstances (e.g. in a

relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the argument ...

) the regular possessive pronouns are "replaced" by the genitive forms of other pronouns. English equivalents could be, "The king, ''whose'' army Napoleon had defeated..." or "The Himalayas, the highest parts ''of which'' were as yet unsurveyed...". They agree in number and gender with the possessor. Unlike other pronouns they carry no strength. Any adjective following them in the phrase will carry the strong endings. Definite possessive f the(mixed) — i.e. the genitive of the demonstrative pronoun ''der'': * Masculine/Neuter: dessen * Feminine/Plural: deren Interrogative possessive f what(mixed)i.e. the genitive of the interrogative pronoun ''wer'': * Masculine/Feminine/Neuter/Plural: wessen :NOT: ''Die Soldaten dessen Armee'' (correct: ''Die Soldaten dieser Armee'')

Dative and genitive cases

German articles and pronouns in the genitive and dative cases directly indicate the actions of owning and giving without needing additional words (indeed, this is their function), which can make German sentences appear confusing to English-speaking learners. The gender matches the receiver's gender (not the object's gender) for the dative case, and the owner's gender for the genitive. * Dative: ''Ich gebe die Karten dem Mann''I give the cards to the man. * Genitive: ''Die Entwicklung unseres Dorfes''The growth of our village. For further details as to the usage of German cases, see German grammar.

References

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