German nouns

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German grammar
Nouns
Verbs
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Pronouns
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Conjugation
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A German noun has one of three specific grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and belongs to one of three declension classes, only partly dependent of gender. A fourth declension is used for plural declension. These features remain unaltered by inflection but must be considered in this process. The grammatical gender influences articles, adjectives and pronouns. Note that gender has no relation to sex of the noun (eg the word 'girl' is neuter, while 'tree' is masculine). It's best considered as an attribute of the noun.

Number (singular, plural) and case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive) must be taken into account in the process of declension.

The declension can be more difficult than in other languages such as Latin; not only the word ending, but also the root may be altered by inflecting.

"Der Mann" - "Die Männer"

Some nouns only have a singular form (Singulariatantum); other nouns only have a plural form (Pluraliatantum):

"Das All", "Der Durst", "der Sand" (space/universe, thirst, sand)

"Die Kosten", "die Ferien" (costs, the holidays)

Traps abound in both directions here; common singular-only words in English are not singular in German, and vice versa:

information = "Information", "die Information" (one tidbit of information)

"die Informationen" (the pieces of information)

the police are (pl.) = "die Polizei ist (sg.)"

Some words change their meaning when changing their number:

Geld (English, "money") - Gelder (English, "different sources of money")

Wein (wine) - die Weine (wines: meaning different kinds of wine)

A few words have two different plurals with distinct meanings. For example:

Wort (word) - Wörter (isolated words, as in five words) - Worte (connected, meaningful words, as in his last words)

Band - Bande (bonds) - Bänder (ribbons)

1 Types of declensions
2 See also

[edit] Types of declensions

The four general case declension classes are:
Singular:
I no declension: used for all and only feminine nouns
die Frau, die Frau, der Frau, der Frau
II genitive -(e)s, dative -(e): used for all neuter and most masculine nouns
der Mann, den Mann, dem Mann(e), des Mann(e)s
das Kind, das Kind, dem Kind(e), des Kind(e)s
III -(e)n for genitive, dative and accusative: used for masculine nouns on -e and a few others, mostly animate nouns.
a) der Drache, den Drachen, dem Drachen, des Drachen
b) der Prinz, den Prinzen, dem Prinzen, des Prinzen
Plural
IV dative -n: used for all nouns except those ending in -n or -s in the nominative plural
a) die Kinder, die Kinder, den Kindern, der Kinder
b) die Frauen, die Frauen, den Frauen, der Frauen
Note that these classes do not yet show how to put a singular noun into its plural form.

[edit] General rules of declension

Given the nominative singular, genitive singular, and nominative plural of a noun, it is possible to determine its declension.
Note that in all feminine nouns, all singular forms are identical
The dative plural of all nouns ends in -n if such an ending does not already exist, except that of nouns that form the plural with -s, which are usually loan words.
Most nouns do not take declensions in the accusative or dative cases. A small class of mostly masculine nouns called "weak nouns" takes the ending -n or -en in all cases except the nominative.

[edit] Declension classes

	Singular				Plural
Class	Nom.	Acc.	Dat.	Gen.	Nom.	Acc.	Dat.	Gen.	Example
	der/das/die	den/das/die	dem/dem/der	des/des/der	die	die	den	der
-(e)s, -e	Berg	Berg	Berg(e)	Berg(e)s	Berge	Berge	Bergen	Berge	der Berg, des Berg(e)s, die Berge
-(e)s, -er	Bild	Bild	Bild(e)	Bild(e)s	Bilder	Bilder	Bildern	Bilder	das Bild, des Bild(e)s, die Bilder
-(e)s, -en	Staat	Staat	Staat(e)	Staat(e)s	Staaten	Staaten	Staaten	Staaten	der Staat, des Staat(e)s, die Staaten
-s, -	Fahrer	Fahrer	Fahrer	Fahrers	Fahrer	Fahrer	Fahrern	Fahrer	der Fahrer, des Fahrers, die Fahrer
-s, -e	Lehrling	Lehrling	Lehrling	Lehrlings	Lehrlinge	Lehrlinge	Lehrlingen	Lehrlinge	der Lehrling, des Lehrlings, die Lehrlinge
-s, -s	Radio	Radio	Radio	Radios	Radios	Radios	Radios	Radios	das Radio, des Radios, die Radios
-en, -en	Student	Studenten	Studenten	Studenten	Studenten	Studenten	Studenten	Studenten	der Student, des Studenten, die Studenten
-, -	Mutter	Mutter	Mutter	Mutter	Mütter	Mütter	Müttern	Mütter	die Mutter, der Mutter, die Mütter
-, -en	Meinung	Meinung	Meinung	Meinung	Meinungen	Meinungen	Meinungen	Meinungen	die Meinung, der Meinung, die Meinungen
-, -e	Kraft	Kraft	Kraft	Kraft	Kräfte	Kräfte	Kräften	Kräfte	die Kraft, der Kraft, die Kräfte
-ns, -n	Name	Namen	Namen	Namens	Namen	Namen	Namen	Namen	der Name, des Namens, die Namen

[edit] Irregular declensions

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	der Herr	die Herren
Accusative	den Herrn	die Herren
Dative	dem Herrn	den Herren
Genitive	des Herrn	der Herren

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	das Herz	die Herzen
Accusative	das Herz	die Herzen
Dative	dem Herz(en)	den Herzen
Genitive	des Herzens	der Herzen

Many foreign nouns have irregular plurals, for example:

-s, -en     das Thema, des Themas, die Themen
-0-, -en    der Kommunismus, des Kommunismus, (die Kommunismen)
-s, PL      das Thema, des Themas, die Themata
-0-, PL     der Uterus, des Uterus, die Uteri

In some religious publications (espacially catholic), the name of Jesus is declined as in Latin, that is:

	sing.
nom.	Ĭēsus Jēsus
voc.	Ĭēsū Jēsū
acc.	Ĭēsum Jēsum
gen.	Ĭēsū Jēsū
dat.	Ĭēsū Jēsū
abl.	Ĭēsū Jēsū

Although the ablative is absent in German, it will be used then if it would be used in Latin. The genitive "Jesu" is much more frequent than the other cases, as in "Die Kreuzigung Jesu", "Jesus' crucifixion".