German Declensions

Declensions are one of the aspects of German grammar that make many people perceive learning German as very difficult. But don't worry. If you learn declensions with the right approach, you will master them perfectly.

What are declensions and what are they for

A declension in grammar refers to a word changing depending on its use.

The 4 declension cases and how they are used

There are a total of four cases of declensions in German although, normally, no more than two or three cases occur in a sentence:

Nominative (Nominativ): the case used with the subject of the sentence.
Accusative (Akkusativ): the case used with the direct object of the sentence.
Dative (Dativ): the case used with the indirect object of the sentence.
Genitive (Genitiv): the case used to indicate possession or belonging between elements of the sentence.

A simple example would be:

"Der Lehrer gibt dem Schüler das Buch" (The teacher gives the student the book).

Here, the article of "Schüler" is "der", "der Schüler", however, in the sentence "dem" is used.

This is because "der Schüler" is used in a specific way within the sentence (as indirect object) that makes the dative case apply to it, which is one of the four possible cases in German declensions.

Finding out the case of a sentence or part of a sentence is quite simple because you can use specific questions to figure it out.

On the other hand, there are rules that determine how words change for each case.

Let's see it for each case.

The nominative in German: what it is and how to use it

The basic case is the nominative. In other words: in this case words do not change.

This case is used with the subject of the sentence, which is who performs the action of the verb.

In the example sentence above, "Der Lehrer" is the subject since it is who performs the action of the verb "gibt".

Therefore, the article ("Der") of the subject and the noun ("Lehrer") are in nominative.

There can be less obvious sentences like, for example, the sentence "Der Tisch ist rot", where the "action" is not so natural: "being red".

To find out which part of the sentence corresponds to the nominative case, you can use the questions who? / what? ("wer?" / "was?").

Applied to the previous example it would be: "Wer gibt dem Schüler das Buch?"

And the answer would be "Der Lehrer".

In the case of an object (i.e., not a person), the question would be with "Was".

Example: "Das Auto ist rot".

Here the subject is "Das Auto". The question would be "Was ist rot?" and the answer: "Das Auto".

The accusative in German: what it is and usage examples

The accusative case indicates the direct object, which directly receives the action of the verb.

In the example sentence, "das Buch" is the direct object, since it is what is given, it is what is affected by the action of the verb.

The accusative here is represented by "das", which is the form taken by the neuter definite article ("das") in this case. In this case, the article "das" does not change, it is the same in nominative as in accusative.

To find out the part of the sentence corresponding to the accusative you can ask with whom? / what? ("wen?" / "was?")

In the example it would be: "Was gibt der Lehrer dem Schüler?" and the answer would be "Das Buch".

The dative in German and how to use it correctly

The dative indicates the indirect object, or to whom the action is intended or who receives something.

In the example sentence, "Schüler" is the indirect object because it is to whom something is given (the book).

The dative here is represented by "dem", which is the form taken by the masculine definite article ("der") in this case.

That is, "der Schüler" becomes "dem Schüler" in dative.

To find out which part of the sentence corresponds to the nominative case, you can use the questions to whom? / for whom? ("wem?")

In the example it would be: "Wem gibt der Lehrer das Buch?" and the answer would be "Dem Schüler".

What is the genitive in German and how to use it

The genitive indicates possession or belonging, similar to the "'s" in English. For example: "This is Andy's book".

If we expand the example sentence to "Der Lehrer gibt dem Schüler das Buch seiner Kollegin", "seiner Kollegin" indicates the possession of the book. "Seiner" ("his/her") is a possessive pronoun in feminine genitive case, referring to "die Kollegin" (colleague).

The complete sentence would be "das Buch seiner Kollegin" (his colleague's book).

You would ask whose? ("wessen?"). However, in this case, formulating the question is not as obvious and easy as in the previous cases:

In this case, the question would be: "Whose book is it?" ("Wessen Buch ist das?")

And the answer would be: "Das ist das Buch seiner Kollegin".

What words are declined in German?

In German, declension affects several types of words. In general, all of them are declined according to case, gender, and number. The best way to learn these declensions is using declension tables with these three dimensions of declensions.

Not all types of words are declined. Verbs, for example, are not declined, only conjugated (with verb tenses).

On the other hand, each type of declinable word has its own rules that dictate how to decline it.

Here we are going to give a general overview of the declension of the types of words that have declensions. But to study the details of the declension rules for each type, consult the declension pages of these types of words.

The declension of articles (Artikel) in German

The definite articles (der, die, das), the indefinite articles (ein, eine), the demonstrative articles (dieser, diese, dieses), the possessive articles (mein, meine) and the negative articles (kein, keine).

Examples:

Das Kind überquert die Straße. ("The child crosses the street." Nominative, no changes)
Ich sehe dem Mann beim Fischen zu. ("I watch the man fishing." Dative, "der Mann" becomes "dem Mann")
Sie nimmt das Portemonnaie aus der Hosentasche. ("She takes the wallet out of the trouser pocket." Dative, "die Hosentasche" becomes "der Hosentasche")

Being such a basic and frequently used type of word, it "stands out" a lot if you make a mistake in the declension of articles. At the same time they are relatively easy to learn with the corresponding declension tables.

For that reason, we recommend starting from the beginning with the study of article declensions.

The declension of pronouns (Pronomen) in German

The different types of pronouns (personal, possessive, relative, etc.) are also declined.

Here, similar to the previous case, we recommend starting early with learning the declension of personal pronouns (ich, du, er, ...), possessive pronouns (mein, dein, sein, ...) and reflexive pronouns (mich, dich, sich, ...) since you will need to use them even with very elementary sentences.

The declension of nouns (Nomen) in German

Nouns are relatively little affected by declensions.

Generally, an "-n" or an "-en" is added for all nouns in the dative plural, unless the plural noun ends in "-n" or "-s" in which case it is not modified.

An "-s" or an "-es" is added in the genitive singular. In some cases, both forms are valid. Normally, if a word ends in "-e" in the genitive case an "-s" is added and if it ends in "-s" or "-z" an "-es" is added.

Finally, some masculine and neuter nouns have a different declension than usual called N-Deklination where an "n" is added so that, for example, "der Junge" would be declined as "den Jungen" (accusative), "dem Jungen" (dative) and "des Jungen" (genitive), both in singular and plural.

These rules apply to the vast majority of nouns, although there are some exceptions that we explain on the specific noun declension page.

The declension of adjectives (Adjektive) in German

In German, adjectives are declined according to the case, gender and number of the noun they describe, and also depending on the type of article that precedes the noun. In adjectives there are three particular subtypes of declension: strong, weak and mixed declension.

We speak of a strong declension when the adjective is not preceded by any article and, therefore, carries the gender ending.

The weak declension occurs when the adjective is preceded by a definite article or another word with an article ending.

The mixed declension refers to when the adjective is preceded by an indefinite article, a possessive pronoun or "kein".

Examples:

Harter Felsen / harte Felsen ("Hard rock / hard rocks" - strong declension)
Der harte Felsen / die harten Felsen ("The hard rock / the hard rocks" - weak declension)
Kein, ein or mein harter Felsen / keine or meine harten Felsen ("No, a or my hard rock / no or my hard rocks" - mixed declension)