German case table. Declension of nouns in German

How often have you promised yourself to start doing something next Monday, next month... next year? But then either they didn’t even try to get down to business, or they soon abandoned everything. Same with studying. foreign language: at first we are full of enthusiasm, and then the first difficulties begin to arise - and we begin to look for an excuse for ourselves not to do anything.

And if English language many learned it with grief, the cases in the German language scare away almost everyone at the very beginning of learning. However, if you think about it, everything is not so scary at all. After all, our native language is Russian. And it has as many as six cases and three genders singular. Besides, forget about her. And in German everything is the same, but there are only four cases, how can you not cope? So let's start figuring it out right now.

Unlike Russian, cases in German are expressed using articles, and not As for adjectives and pronouns, their endings are consistent across cases, but priority in their expression is still given to articles. The endings rather reflect the noun being defined. So, there are the following cases of the German language:

As mentioned above, cases in German are expressed through articles, so for ease of understanding I offer you a table with the change of articles by case.

* - the ending -s is also added to the noun;

** - the ending -n is added to the noun.

Now that we have dealt with the basic questions regarding how cases are used in the German language, it’s time to get down to the most interesting part - prepositions. After all, they are often the ones who influence the use of one case or another. And they are not difficult to learn!

As you can see, cases in German can still be studied, and their use is even more logical than in Russian. So go for it - and remember that everything here depends only on you.

Cases (pad.) in German, as in Russian, are needed to connect words in a sentence and express the relationships between them. If you compare both languages, it turns out that the case system in German is a little simpler.

Firstly, there are only 4 cases: Nominative (Nominativ), Genitive (Genitiv), Dative (Dativ) and Accusative (Akkusativ).

Secondly, nouns, as a rule, do not change their endings when they are declined (only the articles change).

The nominal parts of speech (those that are inflected in the case) in German include nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals.

Nominative pad. (Nominative)

Who answers the questions? (wer?) so what? (was).

Meine Mutter wohnt inHamburg. – Wer wohnt in Hamburg?

My mother lives in Hamburg. – Who lives in Hamburg?

Der Topf steht auf dem Herd. – Was steht auf dem Herd?

The pan is on the stove. -What's on the stove?

It is important to remember that the nominative pad. singular is the initial form of the word (for nominal parts of speech), that is, this is what we find in dictionaries. Nouns, pronouns in the Nominative case. usually appear in a sentence as the subject or part of a compound predicate.

Der junge Mann wartet auf seine Freundin.

A young man is waiting for his girlfriend.

Niko ist mein bester Freund.

Niko is my best friend.

Genitive pad. (Genitiv)

It is used quite rarely in German; now there is a tendency to replace it with the Dative case, especially in oral speech, which Bastian Sick wrote in detail in his book (Bastian Sick. Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod). However, it is still used in noun + noun constructions as a definition (Genitivattribut) with the meaning of belonging. Nouns in the Genitive case answer the question whose? (wessen?):

Das ist das Auto meines Bruders. – Wessen Auto ist das?

This is my brother's car. - Whose car is this?

Der Mann meiner Freundin fliegt heute nach Canada. – Wessen Mann fliegt heute nach Canada?

My friend's husband is flying to Canada today. – Whose husband is flying to Canada today?

At the same time, there are a number of prepositions that require the Genitive case after them. In general, it is better to learn German prepositions in conjunction with case. So, the definitions are in Genitive. follow prepositions of place: abseits (aside), außerhalb (behind, outside), innerhalb (inside, in), jenseits (on the other side), oberhalb (above, above), unterhalb (under, below); time: außerhalb (for, after), binnen (during), während (during), zeit (during, in continuation); reasons: aufgrund (due to), wegen (due to), infolge (due to), mangels (for lack of), kraft (due to, on the basis of); concessive: trotz (despite), ungeachtet (despite, despite); modal: statt, anstatt, anstelle (instead of, in return). With these prepositions, the use of the Dative case with the plural is allowed, however, the use of the Genitive is still preferred, but if we are talking about official documents, then only the Genitive is used.

We should also not forget that some verbs also require a Genitive after them, for example, sich entsinnen (remember, remember), sich schämen (to be ashamed), bezichtigen (to blame), etc.

Ich entsinne mich unseresgemeinsamenUrlaubs sehr germ. – I love to remember our vacation together.

Dative case. (Dativ)

In German, it usually describes the person taking part in what is happening; as a rule, this is the addressee of the action. Answers the question to whom? (wem?).

Die Mutter hat der Tochter einen Rock gekauft. – Wem hat sie einen Rock gekauft?

The mother bought her daughter a skirt. -Who did your mother buy the skirt for?

There are also a number of prepositions that are always followed by the Dative case. It is convenient to remember them with the help of a rhyme:

Mit, nach, aus, zu von ,bei

Just give it dativ.

True, you will still have to learn 4 prepositions separately: ab (from, from, with) and seit (with, from), gegenüber (opposite) and entgegen (opposite, towards) they are also always used with this case.

Some difficulties are presented by prepositions that are used with both the Dative and the Accusative: in (in), auf (on), neben (near, near), hinter (behind, behind), über (above), unter (under) , vor (before), zwischen (between). To determine the pad. noun with such a preposition, it is necessary to ask the question: if the construction answers the question where? (wo?), then the Dative case is used, but if you can ask the question where? (wohin?) – Accusative.

Ich mag auf dem Sofa liegen. – Wo mag ich liegen? – Dativ.

I love lying on the sofa. – Where do I like to lie? - Dative case.

Leg meine Sachen aufs Sofa. –Wohin legst du meine Sachen? – Akkusativ.

Put my things on the sofa? -Where should you put it? - Accusative.

In German there are also a number of verbs that are used only with the Dative case: gehören (to belong), gehorchen (to obey, to obey), passieren (to happen), verzeihen (to forgive), gratulieren (to congratulate), zustimmen (to agree) and many more . etc. Therefore, when learning new verbs, pay attention to which pad. they are used.

Accusative pad. (Akkusativ)

Usually describes some object, which can be a person or an object. Answers questions from whom? (wen?), what? (was?) and where? (wohin?).

Er be sucht heute seine Eltern. – Wen be sucht er heute?

He is visiting his parents today.

Das Mädchen liest die Zeitschrift. – Was liest das Mädchen?

A girl is reading a magazine. -What is the girl reading?

There are a number of prepositions (see above) with which the Accusative case can be used. In such cases, it means the direction of movement and answers the question where?

Wir gehen heute ins Museum. – Wohin gehen wir heute?

We are going to the museum today. -Where are we going?

There are also specific prepositions that always require the accusative: bis (before), durch (through), für (for), gegen (against, about, to), ohne (without), um (around, about).

As for verbs that are used with a direct object (i.e. without a preposition), there are a lot of them; in dictionaries they are marked as transitive Verben, for example, lieben (to love), fragen (to ask), lesen (to read) , küssen (kiss), stören (disturb), umarmen (hug), etc.

Of course, everything is gone. In German it is impossible to learn or even study in detail “in one sitting,” but we hope that our article helped you understand the basics of their use.

In German, like Russian, all nouns, pronouns, adjectives and articles change by case.

Both the Russian language, which belongs to the Slavic language group, and the German, which is part of the Romano-Germanic language group, have the same ancestor - Indo-European language. Due to historical kinship in both Russian and German speech general grammatical categories are highlighted. Cases in German have a certain similarity with case forms in Russian, but are not identical to them.

One of the main differences is the number of case forms. If in Russian there are six of them, then in German you can count only four (there are no prepositional and instrumental cases as such).

Cases in German answer similar questions to those in Russian. Having learned the questions of cases in German, you will easily master the declension of all parts of speech.

Let's look at each of the grammatical forms in more detail.

Nominative

Corresponds to the Russian nominative case and answers the questions: wer? was? (who? what?)

Erster Fall is used when talking about a person, object or phenomenon. The noun in this case acts as a predicate. The nominative case is a denominative form and indicates an object that is at rest when no action is performed on it.

For example:

Der Tisch ist rund.

Die Hefte liegen neben dem Wörterbuch.

The nouns in the examples above serve as the subject. Accordingly, der Tisch and die Hefte are in nominative case.

Genitiv

Zweiter Fall is similar to the genitive case in Russian. Answers the question: wessen? (whose? whose? whom? what?)

The genitive case denotes belonging to something. Nouns in this grammatical form act as a definition:

Die Familie meiner Schwester ist nich groß.

Or additions:

Die Angst vor der Zukunft ließ ihm keine Ruhe.

Dativ

Dritter Fall is close to the dative case in Russian. Answers the question: wem? (to whom? what?)

Due to the fact that cases in German are not completely identical to grammatical forms in Russian, the dative case also answers additional questions: wo? (where?) wann? (When?)

The dative case indicates the object, person or phenomenon to which the action is directed and acts as a complement in the sentence.

Ich verspreche es dem Vater, daß ich schweigen werde.

Sie half der Mutter in der Küche die Gläser auszuwaschen.

Akkusativ

Vierter Fall is identical to the accusative case in Russian. Answers the questions: wen? was? (who? what?)

The accusative case denotes an object, person or phenomenon that is the direct object of the action. Acts as a complement in a sentence.

Mein Freund hat einen Hund.

Übersetzen Sie bitte den Text ohne Wörterbuch!

Changing nouns by case

The main criterion indicating the number and case of a noun is the article or pronoun that replaces it. The ending that determines belonging to any particular case is German nouns often absent.

In the German language, there are three basic types of declension, according to which nouns change according to cases. The type of declension determines the presence or absence of an ending in some case forms.

Strong (masculine) declension - die starke Deklination;

Weak (schwache) declination;

Feminine (weibliche) declension.

A separate type of declination is mixed declination.

In plural All nouns are declined according to the same pattern.

The change in articles does not depend on the type of declension to which the noun belongs. It is connected only with the category of gender, that is, when memorizing, you should pay attention to what gender the noun belongs to. The type of declension determines only the presence or absence of an ending in a particular case form.

Indefinite articles are declined in the same way as definite articles. In the plural, indefinite articles are not used.

The table of cases of the German language will help you learn this category in the German language, their questions, as well as the declension of articles.

We hope that this article will help you understand and learn cases in German.

Articles in German have important grammatical functions. They express gender, number, case and the category of definiteness and indeterminacy of the noun they precede.

Types of articles

German articles divides in three categories: singular der or ein- For masculine, das or ein– for average, die or eine– for feminine and for plural – article die.

Articles der, das, die – certain And ein, eine – uncertain. The category of certainty says that the subject being discussed is isolated from many similar things and is known to the interlocutors, i.e. contextual or unique.

Not definite article in German carries novelty information about an object in a given context, introduces interlocutors to a new object that has appeared in the field of communication and is replaced in repeated use by a definite article. For example:

Ich sehe da ein Mädchen. Das Mädchen weint.
I see (some) girl there. She's crying.

It is easy to see what shades of information both articles convey: in the first case, the girl has just appeared in our context, we do not know her yet, she is one of many for us, some kind of girl in other words. In the second sentence we already use definite article in German, because we continue to talk about that girl, the specific girl who is standing there, so in the translation we can easily replace the word “das Mädchen” simply with the word “she”, since it is already clear who we are talking about.

German article table

It is very important to understand the logic when a subject is not yet defined and when it already becomes defined, i.e. acquaintances, in each specific situation, otherwise even misunderstandings may arise in communicating with Germans. You cannot use only definite or indefinite articles, both of them carry their own grammatical and semantic functions and loads in the language system. Therefore, for clarity, below German article table to begin with, in the nominative case (who? what?).

Declension of articles in German by case

We use the nominative case when we answer the question “who?”, “what?”, i.e. we call an object, in other words, it itself produces an action, being a subject. If the action is directed at an object, and it acts as the object of this action, then the noun begins to change according to cases. Declension of articles in German is unthinkable without the participation of the article, unlike in Russian, where the very form of the word changes due to the ending or other methods of word formation. Therefore, as “Our Father” you need to know the following tables of declination of articles:

Declension of the definite article

Declension of the indefinite article

* Because indefinite article ein came from the numeral eins= one, then in the plural ein is inappropriate, but according to a similar pattern the negation is declined kein= none, for plural – keine= none.

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A noun is a part of speech that changes according to cases, i.e. it is declined. There are four cases in German:

• Nominativ - answers the question - who? What? (wer? was?)
• Genitiv - answers the question - whose, whose? whose, whose? whom? what? (wessen?)
• Dativ - answers the question - to whom? (wem?)
• Akkusativ - answers the question - who? What? (wen? was?)

In German, case endings in nouns are most often absent, and case is indicated by the case form of the article.

Declension of the article in German

Depending on the case endings of singular nouns, three types of noun declension are distinguished:

• strong declination,
• weak declination,
• Declension of feminine nouns.

Strong declension of nouns in German

The strong declension includes most masculine nouns, as well as all neuter nouns.

From the table above it is clear that a strong declination is characterized by the end -(e)s in Genitiv. Moreover, nouns ending in -s, -?, -sch, -z, -tz, get the ending -es in Genitiv. Nouns ending in -е, -er, -el, -en, -chen, -lein, -ling, -ig, -ich, as well as most polysyllabic endings in Genitiv -s.

Weak declension of nouns in German

A small group of masculine nouns denoting animate objects belongs to the weak declension.

• Nouns ending in -e:
  der Junge (boy), der Russe (Russian), der Lowe (lion), der Hase (hare);
• nouns der Mensch (man), der Held (hero), der Bauer* (peasant), der Graf (count), der Nachbar* (neighbor), der Herr (lord), der Hirt (shepherd), der Ochs (ox) , der Bar (bear), der Narr (fool);
• foreign words with suffixes -ist, -ent, -ant, -at, -soph, -nom, -graph, -log(e):
  der Komponist, der Assistent, der Praktikant, der Kandidat, der Diplomat, der Philosopher,
  der Soldat, der Agronom, der Photograph, der Philolog(e).

In all cases, except Nominativ singular, weak declension nouns take a case ending -(e)n.

Nouns that end in -e, as well as der Herr, der Bauer, der Nachbar, receive the ending -n, the rest - the ending -en.

Declension of feminine nouns in German

Feminine nouns do not take singular case endings, and the case is indicated by the form of the article.

This group includes:

• der Name, der Gedanke, der Same, der Wille, der Glaube, der Buchstabe, der Friede,
  der Funke, der Schade, der Fels.

Also in special cases is the declension of the noun das Herz. The noun das Herz is declined as follows:

The declension type of a noun is easy to determine using a dictionary.

For example: Stuhl m-(e)s, ?-e; m determines the gender of the noun - masculine. End -(e)s indicates the Genitiv singular form of this noun - des Stuhl (e)s, thus, the noun belongs to the strong declension.

Another example: Student m-en, -en. Here the first -en indicates that the Genitiv form of this noun is Studenten, so the noun is a weak declension noun.

Special cases of declension of nouns are shown similarly in the dictionary.

Declension of German nouns in the plural

All plural nouns are inflected the same way, taking the case ending -n in the dative case, with the exception of nouns that receive a plural suffix -(e)n or -s.

Declension of proper names in German

• Proper names take endings -s in Genitiv singular:
  Goethe s Gedichte (Goethe's poems); Anna s Vater (Anna's father).
• Names of persons ending in -s, -x and –z, accept the ending –ens:
  Sachsens Werke (works by Sachs).
  Often in these words the ending is completely omitted and replaced with an apostrophe:
  Claus’ Auto (Claus’s car). Proper names denoting geographical names and ending in -s, -x, -z, do not receive any ending:
  der Gipfel des Elbrus (peak of Elbrus).
• Female names on -ie have a singular ending in Genitiv -s or -ns:
  Marie ns(Marie s) Freund (Maria's friend).
• The genitive case can be replaced by a construction with a preposition von:
  Peter s Buch = das Buch von Peter,
  die Straßen Munchen s= die Stra?en von Munchen (streets of Munich).
• A proper name is usually not declined if it is preceded by an article with a definition:

• If a proper name is preceded by a common noun expressing title, rank, position, etc., then two cases are possible:

• When there is an article, only the common noun is declined:

• Without an article, only the proper noun is declined, and the common noun remains unchanged:
  die Regierungszeit Konig Ludwigs
  die Vorlesung Professor Mullers.

• If the first and last names are indicated, then only the last name is declined:
  die Werke Patrick Suskinds (works by Patrick Suskind).