Rules Flashcards
Gender groups
Masculine: -ant, -ast, -ich, -ig, -ismus, -ling, -or, -us
Feminine: -a, -anz, -enz, -ei, -ie, -heit, -keit, -ik, -sion, -tion, -sis, -tät, -ung, -ur, schaft
Neuter: -chen, -lein, -icht, -il, -it, -ma, -ment, -tel, -tum, -um
Masculine (der):
Male persons and animals
days of the week, months of the year
seasons, and most weather elements
Feminine (die):
Female persons and animals
Airplanes, motorcycles, ships
Trees, fruits, and flowers
Neuter (das):
Young persons and baby animals
metals and chemical elements
hotels, cafes, restaurants, and movie theaters
Masculine nouns
Any words that refer to male individuals, their nationalities, their professions, directions (e.g. der Westen), times of day (e.g. evening), days, months, and seasons are allmasculine nouns. Other nouns that are usually masculine are most (singular) nouns ending in –en, –el,-er, and –ling. Additionally, nouns that end in –är,-ar,-or,-ich, –ant,-ent,-eur, –ismus,-ist, and-ier are usually masculine, Furthermore, brand names of cars are always masculine (e.g.derPorsche,derVolkswagen).
Examples: der Lehrling– the apprentice
der Rasen– the lawn
Feminine Nouns
Female individuals, their professions and their nationalities are feminine. Nouns ending with an unstressed-e,or ending in –heit,-kei,-ung,-tät,-ion,-age,-ur,-schaft,-ei,-ie,-anz,-enz, and-ikare generally feminine. Numbers, brands of motorcycles, and ships are also feminine (e.g. die Zwei, die Zehn, die Honda, die Titanic).
Examples: die Landschaft– the landscape
die Universität– the university
Neuter Nouns
Neuter nouns are used when you are referringto young humans and animals, when you usediminutive suffixes-sel,-leinand-chen(e.g. das Baby, das Mädchen), for letters (e.g. das A, das Z), for infinitival nouns/gerunds (e.g. das Essen, das Schwimmen), as well as for nominalizations of adjectives (e.g. das Gute, das Beste) and for the majority of metals. Other neuter nouns are words ending in-um,-tum, and-ment, names of most cities, countries, and also continents.
Examples: das Wachstum– the growth
das Universum– the universe
Ordinal numbers
add a ‘(t)e to the numbers up to 19, so acht becomes der achte, zehn becomes der zehnte and so on.
der erste, der Zweite, der dritte, der Vierte, der funfte,
from 20 onwards, add -ste to the number: einundzwanzig becomes der einundzwansigste
To say on what day something is happening, use “am”, which is a dative preposition.
Ich habe am zweiten Oktober einen Termin.
Ick komme von dem (vom) dritten bis zum zehnten Mai nach Deutschland
Asking for dates
When asking for the date, you can use the following questions:
Welches Datum haben wir heute?
Was fur ein Datum is heute?
Welchen Tag haben wir heute?
Welcher Tag ist heute?
Accusitive case preposition
durch
für
um
ohne
Dative case prepositions
bei
aus
mit
Wechselpräpositionen
Dative case = describing where something is
Accusative case = describing where something is going (in motion or direction)
in
an (at)
auf (on)
neben
über
unter
vor
hinter
zwischen
Definate articles table
………………..Masc feminine Neuter Plural
Nom der die das die
Acc den die das die
Dat dem der dem den
Gen des der des der
Indefinate articles table
………………..Masc feminine Neuter Plural
Nom ein eine ein keine
Acc einen eine ein keine
Dat einem einer einem keinen
Gen eines einer eines keiner
(NOTE: of course, one can’t say ‘a / an’ in front of a plural noun, but I’ve included a plurals column with the word ‘kein’ [not any] so that you can still see the declensions in the plural. You could insert a ‘k-‘ in front of any form of ‘ein-‘ in the rest of the table to have the correct form of ‘not a / an / any’ for the other genders / cases!)
The three types of declension patterns are as follows:
A Weak declension is if the adjective follows a definite article (der/die/das).
= The sentence structure is: definite article + adjective + noun
A Strong declension is if the adjective does not follow an article.
= The sentence structure is: no article + adjective + noun
Mixed declension is used after the indefinite article (ein/eine/ein).
= The sentence structure is: indefinite article (ein, eine …)/ possessive (mein…) / negation article (kein) + adjective + noun
There is a group of masculine nouns that take an -en declension in every case except in the nominative, for example:
nominative: der Student
accusative: den Studenten (<– singular! compare with die Studenten, plural!)
dative: dem Studenten (<– singular! compare with den Studenten, plural!)
genitive: des Studenten (<– note: NO extra -(e)s for these ‘weak’ nouns in the genitive!*)
der Bauer, -n (farmer)
der Affe (monkey)
der Löwe (lion)
der Experte (expert)
der Junge (boy)
der Kunde (customer)
der Nachbar (neighbor)
der Russe (Russian)
der Jude (Jew)
der Monarch (monarch)
der Komponist (composer)
der Astronom (astronomer)
der Mensch (person)
der Bär (bear)
der Christ (male Christian)
Herr (sir)
der Elefant (elephant)
der Held, -en (hero)
der Prinz (prince)
der Narr (fool)
der Ochs (ox)
der Fink (finch)
der Spatz (sparrow)
der Pfau (peacock)
ZERO WORDS: a special set of determiners that takes zero (i.e. no) declensions, no matter where in the chart they are used.
ein bisschen / ein wenig (a little)
etwas (some)
nichts (nothing)
genug (enough)
lauter (only, nothing but)
dergleichen / derlei (suchlike, that kind / sort of)
ein paar (a couple of, a few)
