Pronouns (N, A, D, Reflexive)

January 19, 2015January 19, 2015 / The Angsty Cephalopod / 2 Comments

Let the gossiping begin! I’m going to teach you how to talk about other people!

Below is a chart with the regular nominative case pronoun paired with its English definition:

There are a few odd things to take notice of on this chart.

1) There are 3 instances in which the proper pronoun is a variation of the word “sie.” Capitalization, conjugation and context will help you in determining which “sie” pronoun is being used. The pronoun for “you (formal)” is always capitalized. It uses the infinitive form of verbs, just like the pronoun “sie” (used to mean “they”), so in writing the capitalization will differentiate the two. In spoken German, context will be the key. Meanwhile, the “sie” (used to mean “she”) takes a different conjugational form of verbs and will be recognizable that way.

2) There are two different German pronouns for the single English word “you.” In German, they differentiate between a formal “you” and an informal “you.” Germans actually have two verbs to describe the use of these specific pronouns: “duzen” and “siezen.” So how do you know when to dutze or sietze? Generally, duzen signals comfort and relationship, whereas siezen signals respect (I like to think of it being akin to the “royal we” used in English); whichever pronoun more accurately depicts the relationship between you and the “you” to whom you wish to refer is the appropriate choice. For example, when addressing a family member or close friend, you would likely refer to them as “du”; when addressing the person conducting your job interview, you would likely refer to them as “Sie.” If you’re ever in doubt, siezen is the safer choice. Many Germans will politely correct you by saying, “Wir dutzen uns” (We call each other “du”)– which is much like if you were to call someone “Dr. Doe” and she responds, “Oh, call me Jane!” I’ve found that it is generally better to show “too much” respect than to not show enough when first engaging with a new person– at the worst you’ll flatter someone.

We have learned that the case and gender of a noun changes its articles and adjectives. When it comes to pronouns, the case still determines which pronoun form to use, but gender is relatively irrelevant. It would be incorrect to say that gender plays no roll in pronoun usage (as we still differentiate between “he”, “she” and “it”)– but instead of having the beloved 4×4 grid based on the noun gender and case, we simply have the pronoun case to consider. Much like in English, one doesn’t say “I love he” or “I love she,”; we would say “I love him” or “I love her.” The pronoun changes to indicate the role of the second person/object/indirect object. However, German has more differentiation than English does (for example, we never change the form of the pronoun “you.”).

Examples:

Nominative: You love me.
1. (Informal) Du liebst mich.
2. (Formal) Sie lieben mich.
Accusative: I love you.
1. (Informal) Ich liebe dich.
2. (Formal) Ich liebe Sie.
Dative: I took the paper from you.
1. (Informal) Ich habe die Papier von dir genommen.
2. (Formal) Ich die Papier von Ihnen genommen.

Now we are going to talk about our “-selves”… all 9 of them! There are many German verbs that require Reflexive pronouns, which are pronouns that translate to things like “myself” “yourself” “himself”…

Examples:

Accusative: You bathe yourself.
1. (Informal) Du duscht dich.
2. (Formal) Sie duschen Sich.
Dative: You comb your hair. [More literally: You comb the hair yourself. –or– You yourself comb the hair.]
1. (Informal) Du kämmst dir die Haare.
2. (Formal) Sie kämmen Sich die Haare.

Now if we compare the 2 charts that we just learned, we will notice that they are rather similar. I have highlighted the differences in yellow:

Basically, if anything changes at all, it becomes “sich” or “Sich” in the reflexive instance.

That’s all that me, myself and I have for you this time around. Now you’re armed with pronouns of all cases, reflexive pronouns of all cases, and information about duzen and siezen. Go take the German world by storm!

Adjective Endings (D, ID and UP Articles)

January 15, 2015January 15, 2015 / The Angsty Cephalopod / Leave a comment

As you’ve come to know and love, German articles are subject to the relationship of the noun’s gender and case. The combined classification of gender and case also determines the proper endings that must be attached to each of the adjectives ascribed to each noun.

I think the easiest way to demonstrate these adjective endings in action will be to utilize colored charts to decipher the correct adjective ending for each adjective-noun situation you may face, and then to construct examples. We will revamp our example sentences from the Articles post by adding the adjective “groß” (big) to each noun.

1) For nouns that are preceded by a definite article, the adjective endings are:

So, if we used all masculine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Der große Löwe isst den großen Apfel von demgroßen Besucher.

If we used all feminine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Die große Katze isst die große Kiwi von der großen Nonne.

If we used all neuter nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Das große Pferd isst das große Fisch von dem großen Kind.

If we used all plural nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Die großen Bären essen die großen Karotten von den großen Zoowärter.

In instances of the genitive case for each gender, the sentences would read like this:

Der Löwe isst den Apfel des großen Besuchers.
Die Katze isst die Kiwi der großen Nonne.
Das Pferd isst das Fisch des großen Kinds.
Die Bären essen die Karotten der großen Zoowärter.

2) For nouns that are preceded by an indefinite article, the adjective endings are:

If we used all masculine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Ein großer Löwe isst einen großen Apfel von einem großen Besucher.

If we used all feminine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Eine große Katze isst eine große Kiwi von einer großen Nonne.

If we used all neuter nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Ein großes Pferd isst ein großes Fisch von einem großen Kind.

If we used all plural nouns and the “ein word” “kein”, the sentence would read like this:

Keine großen Bären essen keine großen Karotten von keinen großen Zoowärter.

In instances of the genitive case for each gender, the sentences would read like this:

Ein Löwe isst einen Apfel eines großen Besuchers.
Eine Katze isst eine Kiwi einer großen Nonne.
Ein Pferd isst ein Fisch eines großen Kinds.
Keine Bären essen keine Karotten keiner großen Zoowärter.

3) For nouns that are not preceded by any article, the adjective endings are:

Notice how “gendered” these endings are! They are almost identical to the “der words” (definite articles) chart we learned in the Articles post (click here to see the “der words” chart)– the only difference is that the genitive masculine and genitive neuter are “-en” instead of “-es.” The way I remember that the unpreceded adjective endings is by supposing that if there is no article to define the noun’s gender, something has to do it, and that the noun’s adjective takes on that responsibility. Let’s change things up a bit an construct some new sentences using these nouns:

If we used each of these unpreceded nouns in the nominative case, the sentences would read like this:

Übermäßiger Zorn hat Folgen. (Excessive anger has consequences.)
Übermäßige Gier hat Folgen. (Excessive greed has consequences.)
Einwandfreies Gespür ist wichtig. (Impeccable intuition is important.)
Glaubwürdige Lügen sind schlau. (Believable lies are clever.)

If we used each of these unpreceded nouns in the accusative case, the sentences would read like this:

Sie hat unvorstellbaren Zorn. (She has incredible anger.)
Sie hat unvorstellbare Gier. (She has incredible greed.)
Sie hat unvorstellbares Gespür. (She has incredible intuition.)
Sie hat unvorstellbare Lügen erzählt. (She has told incredible lies.)

If we used each of these unpreceded nouns in the dative case, the sentences would read like this:

Sie war mit unvorstellbarem Zorn bestraft. (She was cursed with incredible anger.)
Sie war mit unvorstellbarer Gier bestraft. (She was cursed with incredible greed.)
Sie war mit unvorstellbarem Gespür bestraft. (She was cursed with incredible intuition.)
Sie war mit unvorstellbaren Lügen bestraft. (She was cursed with incredible lies.)

If we used each of these unpreceded nouns in the genitive case, the sentences would read like this:

Wegen unvorstellbaren Zorn, war der König ermordet. (Due to incredible anger, the king was murdered.)
Wegen unvorstellbarer Gier, war der König ermordet. (Due to incredible greed, the king was murdered.)
Wegen “unvorstellbaren“ Gespür, war der König ermordet. (Due to “incredible” intuition, the king was murdered.)
Wegen unvorstellbarer Lügen, war der König ermordet. (Due to incredible lies, the king was murdered.)

4) For when you are totally in the dark about which adjective ending to use, the unchanging endings are:

This fourth chart highlights endings which are the same, no matter if the noun is preceded by a definite article, indefinite article without an article. The moral of this story is that you’re best off guessing “-en” or “-e” if you’re really unsure.

Now that you know how to properly end them, go ahead and spice up those sentences with cunning adjectives!

Prepositions (A, D, G and 2-way)

January 14, 2015January 15, 2015 / The Angsty Cephalopod / Leave a comment

If you’re new to language learning, you may not know, but prepositions are the jerks of the parts of speech family. They include (but are not limited to) the words for:

above, across, after, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beside, besides, between, but, by, down, during, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, outside, over, past, save, since, to, through, throughout, under, until, upon, with, within, without.

Each language has different prepositions to go with different phrases. In English, you would say, “I stayed with my Aunt.” or “I stayed at my Aunt’s.” In German, you would say, “Ich war bei meiner Tante”– which literally translates to “I was by my Aunt.” For this reason it is very important to learn the correct prepositional phrases. This website is a nice resource to see exactly how some of the more common prepositions function, and if you scroll to the bottom of the page that this link takes you to, it will show you a list of verbs that have a specific preposition attached.

However, in this post I want to focus on the different effects that German prepositions have on pronouns, nouns (and their adjectives) rather than the specific pairings of verbs and prepositions.

Certain prepositions will always render their pronoun’s or noun’s case (and attached adjectives) accusative, dative or genitive.

Memorizing this chart will give you an easy boost to improving your German grammar, as the accusative and dative prepositions are rather common. The genitive prepositions that I have listed in the first column (“anstatt” through “wegen”) are the ones that I have found to be the most useful in my normal German interactions. Genitive prepositions can usually be avoided altogether by using other phrases to communicate the same meaning, but nothing says that you can’t whip one out and “wow” your native speaker friends with one if the opportunity arises (My favorite is “trotz”).

Our understanding of nominative, accusative and dative tells us that in the sentence:

I bought my daughter the car.

“I’ is nominative, “the car” is accusative, and “my daughter” is dative.

If we add the preposition “for” (“für”) and change the sentence to:

I bought the car for my daughter.

“I” is nominative, “the car” is accusative, and the use of the preposition “for” (“für”) renders the noun “my daughter” accusative instead of dative. No matter what, the noun (or pronoun, and the attached adjectives) after an accusative preposition, they will be accusative. The same goes for dative and genitive prepositions respectively.

You will notice that there are many other prepositions that I have not listed for you in the chart above. *Most* of these prepositions fall into a fourth category known as 2-way prepositions (I say “most” because I cannot find an exhaustive list of genitive prepositions anywhere!). As the name implies, 2-way prepositions can render the subsequent noun or pronoun’s case (and attached adjective’s cases) either accusative OR dative. So, how to decide? Unfortunately you can’t just pick one and run with it. Knowing which case is appropriate to use depends on the situation your sentence is describing:

If your sentence’s preposition is detailing information about “where to,” then the accusative case is used.
If your sentence’s preposition is detailing information about “where,” then the dative case is used.

I remember these relationships because the phrase “where to” has more letters than “where,” just like “accusative” has more letters than the word “dative.”

Let’s explore an example set of situations:

I am getting in the car.
I am in the car.

The first sentence is answering the question “where to” by telling where I am going: into the car. The second sentence is answering the question “where” by telling you where I am. So the German equivalents would look like:

Ich gehe in das Auto –or– Ich gehe ins Auto.
Ich bin in dem Auto.

Another way teachers may tell you to interpret the correct case is by considering if there is motion or no motion involved. In the first car example, I am “getting in(to)” the vehicle, whereas in the second car example I am already “in” the vehicle. Just don’t let this fool you. If we had a sentence like,

“The children are playing soccer on the street,”

there appears to be motion (playing), however the prepositional phrase isn’t really connected to this motion. The prepositional phrase is acting as additional information about the motion and isn’t part of the motion itself (It is answering the question “where” rather than the question “where to”).

I have also devised my own method for discerning the proper case. I will visualize a cameraman filming my sentence: if to capture the essence of my sentence he’d be filming a close up of me (or who or whatever) doing something, chances are it’s the accusative case; if to capture the essence of my sentence he’d have to set up a whole scene (a “where”), chances are it’s the dative case. It’s not foolproof, but it helps me when I get stuck on sentences like, “The children are playing soccer on the street.”

Why be so difficult? It helps to clarify what’s going on using grammar instead of extra vocabulary. I’ll blame it on the stereotypical German need for efficiency at all times, including in their language.

A few good examples of this “efficiency” are:

Ich skilaufe auf den Berg.
1. I am skiing (to where?) down the mountain.
Ich skilaufe auf dem Berg.
1. I am skiing (where?) on/at the mountain.

Ich gehe in den Laden.
1. I walk (to where?) into the store (from the parking lot).
Ich gehe in dem Laden.
1. I walk (where) in the store (browsing the aisles).

The entire meaning of the sentence changes with just 1 letter.

The last monkey wrench I’ll throw at you is the set of instances wherein the prepositional phrases don’t serve a “where” or “where to” purpose. One such phrase is, “thinking about.” In German, the verb “denken” which means “to think” can be followed by the prepositions “an” or “über.” These words are followed by the accusative when they are used to mean “about.”

If we were to say, “denken an” followed with dative, it would be understood to mean “thinking atop” (and “denken über” followed with dative would be understood to mean “thinking above”). This difference would be very important if you were trying to tell someone “Ich denke an dich” (accusative, meaning “I think about you”) versus “Ich denke an dir” (dative, meaning “I think on top of you”), because that could get really awkward, really quickly!

However, not all prepositions that translate to “about” from German to English are followed by the accusative case; it is only true with 2-way prepositions! The phrase “dream about” in German is “traumen von,” and as we learned from the chart at the beginning, “von” is ALWAYS dative. Even if it means “about.”

There you have it! Good luck!

German Grammar — What you Need to Know

October 9, 2014 / The Angsty Cephalopod / Leave a comment

Most of German grammar relies on 7 things:

Capitalization
Noun Genders (and their effects on everything)
Noun Cases (and their effects on everything)
Definite, Indefinite and Unprecedented Articles (and their effects on Determiners and Adjective Endings)
Prepositions (and their effects on Noun Cases)
Verb Conjugation and
Word (specifically Verb) Order.

Let’s get dig in a little bit and see why these 7 things are pivotal to learning grammatically correct German.

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1). Capitalization

German nouns are capitalized, every time. Adjectives are never capitalized, unless they begin a new sentence. Capitalize the first letter of a new sentence. Bam.

2) Noun Genders (and their effects on everything)

Every German noun has a gender. It falls into one of three options:

1) Masculine
2) Feminine
3) Neuter

Sometimes there is rhyme or reason to the gender allocations to the nouns, but sometimes it seems totally haphazard. Your best bet is to memorize the gender when you first learn the vocab word. Genders for nouns and adjectives are generally related to/derived from the last syllable of the noun. If you don’t know the gender, you can usually form an educated guess by looking at that last syllable. Words that are obviously derived from English or other languages are generally gender neutral.

Then, each noun can be pluralized, which creates a 4th category of “gender.”

4) Plural.

Each of these genders has an effect on the grammar of the sentence.

3) Noun Cases (and their effects on everything)

German has four cases which help determine the actors and objects in a sentence… which you will eventually appreciate when you learn more about German word order rules and how they are very different from English.

1) Nominative: The subject of a sentence, the thing doing the action
2) Accusative: The direct object, the thing which is directly receiving the action, or the object of certain prepositions.
3) Dative: The indirect object, as in when an object is given to someone, or the object of certain prepositions and verbs
4) Genitive: The possessor of something, or the object of certain prepositions or verbs; in English “Whose?”

Here is an example sentence to break down:

The girl gave the boy their mother’s book.

The girl is the subject. (Nominative)
The book is the direct object. (Accusative)
The boy is the indirect ‘object’. (Dative)
The mother is the possessor. (Genitive)

So, if we were going to apply German grammar rules to that sentence, we would have to take into account both the case of each noun, as well as the gender of the word and use that information to determine the correct word or endings that need to be applied. Pronouns, like nouns, also undergo change in relation to case.

These combinations can easily be represented on a chart, with the cases along the Y axis and genders along the X axis.

In upcoming posts, there are 5 charts set up like this to help you navigate all of the possibilities. You determine which chart to use by determining if you are talking about a Definite, Indefinite or Unprecedented Article and if you are trying to determine the grammatical information about a Noun or an Adjective (ending).

Based on a combination of the gender of the noun and its position in the sentence (nominative, accusative, dative) there are:

–6 different definite articles, or words for “the” (der words).

der (masculine)
die (feminine or plural)
das (neuter)
den (variable)
dem (variable)
des (variable)

–6 different indefinite article endings, or words for “a” (ein words), which are also the 6 possible adjective endings.

-er
-e
-es
-en
-em
– (none)

My first German teacher advised me to memorize these 5 charts early on. I rebelled, and I regret it immensely! If I were any less afraid of needles, I seriously would have gotten them tattooed on my forearm for test-taking purposes during my semester abroad in Germany. Yes, they are THAT vital to your grammatical success.

4) Definite, Indefinite and Unprecedented Articles (and their effects on Determiners and Adjective Endings)

For the record, “Determiner” is the part of speech that the words “the” and “a” (or “an”) belong to. This is relevant because, as we mentioned in #2, these words change in relation to the Case of the Noun that the Determiner it is attached to.

Definite articles are specific nouns: I want the fresh bread. I want the pencil.
Indefinite articles are less specific nouns: I want a piece of fresh bread. I want a pencil.
Unprecedented articles are nouns with no determiner present: I want fresh bread. I want pencils.

You have to determine what sort of article the Noun in question is before you can pick which (Noun Case) x (Noun Gender) chart you need to reference.

5) Prepositions (and their effects on Noun Cases)

The most difficult part of learning of any language, I have been told, is learning to understand prepositions. In English we think “about” someone, while in German, you think “on” someone. Unfortunately, German preposition troubles don’t stop there. They have the power to affect the case of the object noun. The object noun is the one receiving the action of the verb (Ex: The cat ran through the forest.).

There are 3 types of prepositions:

Accusative
Dative
2-way

Some prepositions always render the object noun accusative. Some prepositions always render the object noun dative. Some prepositions are dependent on whether your noun is answering the question “where?” or “where to?”. I will have a whole post dedicated to this topic in greater detail (including the lists of these prepositions). The reason I bring it up now is because if your sentence uses a preposition, this will affect your noun case, which we discovered in #2 also affects your adjective endings and choice of determiner/article.

6) Verb Conjugation

Unfortunately, as a native English speaker, we are less in tune with verb conjugation than many other language speakers of the world. The conjugations of the verb are dependent on the subject noun or pronoun of the sentence. The subject noun of the sentence is the noun doing the action (Ex: The cat ran through the forest). The best example in English is the verb “to be”:

I am
You are
He/She/It is
We are
They are

In German, every verb requires conjugation. Luckily, most verbs follow the same standard conjugation pattern. However, there are verbs that take strange variations to their conjugations, like Modal Verbs. I will further explain standard conjugation and modal verb conjugations, as well as extrapolations on verbs in different tenses in coming posts.

Conjugation also determines whether or not the verb is being used imperatively (command form).

7) Word (specifically Verb) Order

When constructing a perfect German sentence, it is important to pay attention to word order.

Despite all of the noise above about Nouns– Verbs are really king when it comes to German. They, and their relationship to all other parts of the sentence, determine the word order.

In simple sentences, the verb always comes second. Subject –> Verb –> (Object, if applicable).
- Ex: I paint pictures.
If there is more than one verb in the sentence, the subject’s direct verb goes second, and all other verbs cluster at the end in their infinitive form. This can become rather confusing in long sentences, but it becomes much easier in practice… and you’ll learn to love defaulting to the infinitive verb form.
- Ex1: I can paint pictures. –> I can pictures paint.
- Ex2: We can go swimming tomorrow. –> Tomorrow can we swimming going.
If not using a question word (who, what, where, when, why, how), German requires that the verb comes first to denote a question. This helps with clarification between statements and questions (as does intonation and punctuation).
- Ex: Are you coming with us? –> Coming you with us?
Coordinating conjunctions denote a “resetting” or word order. It applies the word order rules separately to each clause.
- Ex: We have eaten dinner and now we are tired. –> We have dinner eaten and now are we tired.
Subordinating conjunctions will alter verb/word order by creating a subordinate clause. Where you choose to put the subordinate clause will determine your sentence structure. I will go over this in greater detail in a future post.
- Ex1 (Subordinate clause last): We want candy because we are hungry. –> We want candy, because we hungry are.
- Ex2 (Subordinate clause first): Because we have eaten, we are tired. –> Because we eaten have, are we tired.

Other things to note about word order include:

Unlike English, German follows the pattern of addressing the Time, Manner and Place of action in that order.
- Ex: We will go to the bank with our check tomorrow. –> Tomorrow will we with our check to the bank going.
Like English, German places the adjective in front of the noun it describes and the adverb in front of the verb it describes (except when there is more than one verb in the sentence).
Verb negations come after the verb.
- Ex: He does not laugh. –> He laughs not.

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And there you have it! The basics of “The Awful German Language,” as Mark Twain called it.

There is a lot to take in, memorize and apply, but take a breath and take heart!

Although you undoubtedly should dedicate time and effort to memorizing all of the rules and charts to perfect your German grammar, if you use incorrect combination of “the”-s, “a”-s, endings, or conjugations, German speakers will usually understand you. Just don’t get too comfortable being understood in spite of your poor grammar, or else you may end up having to talk yourself out of grammar chart tattoos later on in life too!

Articles (Definite and Indefinite)

September 30, 2014January 8, 2015 / The Angsty Cephalopod / 1 Comment

In English there are only two articles: “the” and “a”. You could bump it up to three if you wanted to to include the word “an,” which is used in the same way as the word “a” in instances when the noun starts with a vowel or a vowel sound. These are words that sometimes precede a noun to describe the “definiteness” of the noun– do you want a specific pencil, or will any pencil suffice? In German, there’s a little more to determining which article to use than just whether or not the noun starts with a vowel.

Let’s get started!

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Definite Articles

The most common word in the English language is the word “the.” It is used to refer to a specific noun/object, so grammarians call this this word type the “definite article.” It’s the difference between asking for any old pencil and asking for the pencil.

German has 6 different words to convey the same idea as the English word “the”: der, die, das, den, dem, des. These are known as “der words.”

According to this list, “der” is the most common German word, with “die” taking second place and “das” coming in at seventh place. Knowing this, it is important to know and understand these words and how they are used!

In German, every noun has a gender, be it masculine, feminine or neuter. There is a little bit of logic and reasoning behind the gender allocations, but most of them have to do with phonetics more than with traditional gender rolls and associations (For example, the word for “skirt” is masculine and the word for “necktie” is feminine). And to make matters even more complicated, pluralized nouns also have their own gender category for determining the proper article to choose.

Germans also take note of the roll of the noun in their sentences and whether each noun is the subject, object, indirect object or possessed object– which are also known as being in the nominative, accusative, dative or genitive case respectively.

By taking these two pieces of information about each noun, you can utilize this chart to determine the correct definite article for your noun:

First, determine which column your noun’s gender dictates, and then determine the row that the noun’s case falls under. The intersection of this column and row houses your desired definite article.

I have color-coded this chart to showcase the patterns within the chart visually.

Now, for a bit of practice! Here is a pre-selected set of nouns, grouped according to gender:

We will place them in one of these pre-formulated sentences, which translates to “The _______ ate the _______ from the _______.”

Singular subject:
- (Definite article) (Subject noun) isst (Definite article) (Object noun) von (Definite article) (Indirect object noun).
Plural subject:
- (Definite article) (Subject noun) essen (Definite article) (Object noun) von (Definite article) (Indirect object noun).

So, if we used all masculine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Der Löwe isst den Apfel von dem Besucher.

If we used all feminine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Die Katze isst die Kiwi von der Nonne.

If we used all neuter nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Das Pferd isst das Fisch von dem Kind.

If we used all plural nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Die Bären essen die Karotten von den Zoowärter.

However, sentences will rarely be comprised of exclusively same-gendered nouns… “Die Katze isst das Fisch von der Nonne” and “Das Pferd isst den Apfel von dem Besucher” make more sense than my previous sentences. So, the quicker you get used to memorizing the forms and combining them, the quicker your German grammar will become envy-worthy!

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about the genitive case! It’s just harder to incorporate into a simple sentence alongside all of the other cases, but now that you understand the 3 more common cases, we can build on what we know! Genitive case is used to express possession, much like the “-‘s” in English. If we were to translate a sentence that includes a genitive case, the genitive part usually comes out sounding like “the bicycle of the man” or “the dog of my mother”.

This time our example sentence will read: “The _______ ate the _______ of the _______.”

So, if we used all masculine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Der Löwe isst den Apfel des Besuchers. (*notice the “s” added to the end of the owner of the object.)

If we used all feminine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Die Katze isst die Kiwi der Nonne.

If we used all neuter nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Das Pferd isst das Fisch des Kinds. (*notice the “s” added to the end of the owner of the object.)

If we used all plural nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Die Bären essen die Karotten der Zoowärter.

Congratulations! You have mastered the first half of articles!

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Indefinite Articles

The word “a” or “an” is the 5th most common word in the English language, and its 6 German counterparts (ein, eine, einen, einem, einer, eines) rank as the 14th most common word in German.

Unlike the definite articles, these words refer to a NON-specific noun/object, so grammarians call this this word type the “indefinite article.” Now we are asking for any old pencil, instead of a specific pencil.

Just as before, we combine the gender of the noun and the noun’s case in the sentence to navigate to the correct “ein word.”

Again, I have color-coded this chart to showcase the patterns within the chart visually. This chart displays just the ending of the “ein word,” so orange squares are “einen“, red squares are “einer” and green squares are simply “ein.”

We will use the same example words as before to explore the indefinite articles and their changes but this time the sentence will translate to: “A _______ ate a _______ from a _______.”

If we used all masculine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Ein Löwe isst einen Apfel von einem Besucher.

If we used all feminine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Eine Katze isst eine Kiwi von einer Nonne.

If we used all neuter nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Ein Pferd isst ein Fisch von einem Kind.

Now we reach an interesting situation– we can not assign plural nouns an indefinite article (think “a bears” “a carrots” or “a zookeepers”), so I must teach you another “ein word” that is not actually an article: kein. “Kein” means “no,” in the sense of “not a one of the” or “none of the.”

If we used all plural nouns and the “ein word” “kein”, the sentence would read like this:

Keine Bären essen keine Karotten von keinen Zoowärter.

This particular example sentence doesn’t make much sense, as there are too many negatives, so here are some other examples.

Keine Bären essen Karotten von Zoowärter. (No bears eat carrots from zoo keepers.)
Bären essen keine Karotten von Zoowärter. (Bears eat no carrots from zoo keepers.)
Die Bären essen Karotten von keinen Zoowärter. (The bears eat carrots from none of the/no zoo keepers.)

Then, if we venture back into genitive, our example sentence will read: “A _______ ate a _______ of a _______.”

So, if we used all masculine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Ein Löwe isst einen Apfel eines Besuchers. (*notice the “s” added to the end of the owner of the object.)

If we used all feminine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Eine Katze isst eine Kiwi einer Nonne.

If we used all neuter nouns, the sentence would read like this:

Ein Pferd isst ein Fisch eines Kinds. (*notice the “s” added to the end of the owner of the object.)

If we used all plural nouns and the “ein word” “kein”, the sentence would read like this:

Keine Bären essen keine Karotten keiner Zoowärter.

And with that, you have mastered the second half of articles!

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The moral of the story is that it is EXCRUCIATINGLY VITAL to learn, memorize and practice these two charts:

If you don’t get them right all the time, Germans will likely still understand you– but the longer you resist learning them, the longer you resist an “easy fix” to substantially improving your German language skills.