German, Formation of Plural Nouns, Possessive Adjectives, Accusative Case, Dative Case

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German - Formation of Plural Nouns, Possessive Adjectives, Accusative Case, Dative Case

Formation of Plural Nouns

Plural nouns in German are unpredictable, so it's best to memorize the plural form with the singular. However, here are some rules that can help:

1. Feminine nouns usually add -n or -en. Nouns that end in -in (such as the female equivalents of masculine nouns) add -nen.

eine Lampe	zwei Lampen
eine Tür	zwei Türen
eine Studentin	zwei Studentinnen

2. Masculine and neuter nouns usually add -e or -er. Many masculine plural nouns ending in -e add an umlaut as well, but neuter plural nouns ending in -e don't. Plurals that end in -er add an umlaut when the stem vowel is a, o , u or au.

Masculine		Neuter
ein Rock	zwei Röcke	ein Heft	zwei Hefte
ein Mann	zwei Männer	ein Buch	zwei Bücher

3. Masculine and neuter singular nouns that end in -er either add an umlaut or change nothing at all. Many nouns with a stem vowel of a, o, u or au add an umlaut.

Masculine		Neuter
ein Bruder	zwei Brüder	ein Fenster	zwei Fenster

4. Nouns that end in a vowel other than an unstressed -e and nouns of foreign origin add -s.

ein Hobby	zwei Hobbys
ein Hotel	zwei Hotels

Possessive Adjectives

	Masc.	Fem.	Neu.	Pl.
Nom.	mein	meine	mein	meine
Acc.	meinen	meine	mein	meine
Dat.	meinem	meiner	meinem	meinen
Gen.	meines	meiner	meines	meiner

Note: Other words that are formed like mein are: dein-your (du form), sein-his/its, ihr-her, unser-our, euer-your (ihr form), ihr-their, Ihr-your (Sie form), and kein-no/not any.

Accusative Case

The accusative case corresponds to direct objects. Here are the accusative forms of the definite and indefinite articles. Note that only the masculine changes in this case.

**Definite and Indefinite Articles**
	Masc.	Fem.	Neuter	Plural
Definite	den	die	das	die
Indefinite	einen	eine	ein	keine

Note: Some masculine nouns add an -(e)n to the accusative form, such as international nouns ending in -t (Dirigent, Komponist, Patient, Polizist, Soldat, Student, Tourist, Journalist); nouns ending in -e denoting male persons or animals (Drache, Junge, Kunde, Löwe, Neffe, Riese, Vorfahre, Zeuge); and the following nouns: Elefant, Herr, Mensch, Nachbar. And wen (whom) is the accusative of wer (who).

**Personal Pronouns - Nominative & Accusative**
ich	I	mich	me	wir	we	uns	us
du	you	dich	you	ihr	you	euch	you
er	he	ihn	him	sie	they	sie	them
sie	she	sie	her	Sie	you	Sie	you
es	it	es	it

German uses the case system to show the function of a word in a sentence, whereas English relies mainly on word order. Take, for example, the following sentences: Ich esse den Apfel translates into I eat the apple. In German, you can switch the word order around without affecting the meaning. Den Apfel esse ich is also I eat the apple, but in English, if you were to change word order, you would have to say the apple eats me. English does not accomodate for the direct object to be placed before the subject and verb like German does.

Dative Case

The dative case corresponds to indirect objects. Usually in English, we use the words to or for to indicate an indirect object. But German relies on the endings of the dative case. Here are the dative forms of the definite and indefinite articles.

**Definite and Indefinite Articles**
	Masc.	Fem.	Neuter	Plural
Definite	dem	der	dem	den
Indefinite	einem	einer	einem	keinen

Note: Those same masculine nouns that added an -(e)n in the accusative form also add an -(e)n in the dative form. And all plural nouns add an -(e)n in the dative plural, unless they already end in an -n or -s. And wem (to/for whom) is the dative of wer (who).

**Personal Pronouns**
mir	me	uns	us
dir	you	euch	you
ihm	him	ihnen	they
ihr	her	Ihnen	you
ihm	it

In sentences that show with both a direct and indirect object, the noun in the dative case precedes the accusative noun, unless the accusative case is a pronoun.