Free German Declension Tool for Practice & Examples
Mastering German declensions is a pivotal step in achieving fluency in the language. Declensions affect articles, adjectives, and pronouns, altering their forms to convey grammatical relationships within sentences. This guide offers a comprehensive overview, complete with an interactive declension table, to support your learning journey
What are German Declensions and Cases?
Understanding German Declensions and Cases:
- Nominative: This is the doer — the person or thing doing something.
- Example: The dog runs. (“The dog” is doing the running.)
- Accusative: This is the receiver — the person or thing that the action is happening to.
- Example: I see the dog. (“The dog” is being seen.)
- Dative: This is the helper — the one who gets something or benefits.
- Example: I give the dog a bone. (“The dog” gets the bone.)
- Genitive: This shows belonging — like saying something belongs to someone.
- Example: The dog’s bone is big. (The bone belongs to “the dog.”)
Think of them like characters in a story:
- Nominative = the hero
- Accusative = the target
- Dative = the gift-getter
- Genitive = the owner
German Declensions
Definite Articles (“the”)
The definite articles in German change based on the case and gender of the noun:
| Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | der | die | das | die |
| Accusative | den | die | das | die |
| Dative | dem | der | dem | den |
| Genitive | des | der | des | der |
Indefinite Articles (“a”/”an”)
Similarly, indefinite articles adapt to the noun’s case and gender:
| Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ein | eine | ein | keine |
| Accusative | einen | eine | ein | keine |
| Dative | einem | einer | einem | keinen |
| Genitive | eines | einer | eines | keiner |
Adjective Endings
Adjective endings in German are influenced by the presence and type of articles:
- Strong Inflection: Used when no article precedes the adjective.
- Weak Inflection: Occurs when a definite article precedes the adjective.
- Mixed Inflection: Applies when an indefinite article or possessive pronoun precedes the adjective.
For instance, in the nominative case:
- Strong: guter Wein (good wine)
- Weak: der gute Wein (the good wine)
- Mixed: ein guter Wein (a good wine)
Interactive Declension Table
To facilitate your understanding, here’s an interactive table illustrating the declension of the masculine noun Mann (man):
| Case | Definite Article | Indefinite Article | Adjective | Noun |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | der | ein | gute | Mann |
| Accusative | den | einen | guten | Mann |
| Dative | dem | einem | guten | Mann |
| Genitive | des | eines | guten | Mannes |
This table demonstrates how articles and adjectives change according to the case.
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