German declension is the paradigm that German uses to define all the ways articles, adjectives and sometimes nouns can change their form to reflect their role in the sentence: subject, object, etc. Declension allows speakers to mark a difference between subjects, direct objects, indirect objects and possessives by changing the form of the word—and/or its associated article—instead of indicating this meaning through word order or prepositions (e.g. English, Spanish, French). As a result, German can take a much more fluid approach to word order without the meaning being obscured. In English, a simple sentence must be written in strict word order (ex. A man eats an apple). This sentence cannot be expressed in any other word order than how it is written here without changing the meaning. A translation of the same sentence from German to English would appear rather different (ex. "Ein Mann isst einen Apfel" (a man)-subject eats (an apple)-direct object) and can be expressed with a variety of word order (ex. "Einen Apfel isst ein Mann" (an apple)-direct object is eaten by (a man)-subject) with little or no change in meaning.
As a fusional language, German marks nouns, pronouns, articles, and adjectives to distinguish case, number, and gender. For example, all German adjectives have several different forms. The adjective neu (new), for example, can be written in five different ways (neue, neuer, neues, neuen, neuem) depending on the gender of the noun that it modifies, whether the noun is singular or plural, and the role of the noun in the sentence. English lacks such declensions (except for rare and exceptional ones, such as blond/blonde) so that adjectives take only one form,Blond vs. blonde , grammarist.com. or in the case of pronouns, such as I, me, my, mine, she, her, etc., which show the remnants of nominative, accusative, and genitive case markings.
Modern High German distinguishes between four cases—nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative—and three grammatical genders—feminine, masculine, and neuter. Nouns may also be either singular or plural; in the plural, one declension is used regardless of gender – meaning that plural can be treated as a fourth "gender" for the purposes of declining articles and adjectives. However, the nouns themselves retain several ways of forming plurals which often, but not always, correspond with the word's gender and structure in the singular. For example, many feminine nouns which, in the singular, end in e, like die Reise ("the journey"), form the plural by adding -n: die Reisen ("the journeys"). Many neuter or masculine nouns ending in a consonant, like das Blatt or der Baum ("the leaf" and "the tree") form plurals by a change of vowel and appending -er or -e: die Blätter and die Bäume ("the leaves", "the trees"). Historically, these and several further plural inflections recall the noun declension classes of Proto-Germanic, but in much reduced form.
Articles
Definite article
The definite articles (der, die, etc.) correspond to the English "the".
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 article The indefinite articles (ein, eine, etc.) correspond to English "a", "an". Note: ein is also a numeral which corresponds to English "one" (i.e. 1).
Ein has no plural; as in English, the plural indefinite article is null, as in "There are cows in the field." ("Es gibt Kühe auf dem Felde."). Instead, the declension of the pronoun kein (no, not any, not one) is given, which follows the plural paradigm.
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural* Nominative ein eine ein keine Accusative einen eine ein keine Dative einem einer einem keinen Genitive eines einer eines keiner
Adjectival pronouns Certain adjectival pronouns also decline like der: all-, dies-, jed-, jen-, manch-, solch-, welch-. These are called der-words (Der-Wort).
The general declension pattern is as shown in the following table: Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Nominative -er -e -es -e Accusative -en -e -es -e Dative -em -er -em -en Genitive -es -er -es -er
Examples: Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Nominative dieser diese dieses diese Accusative diesen diese dieses diese Dative diesem dieser diesem diesen Genitive dieses dieser dieses dieser Case jeder (singular) alle (plural) Masculine Feminine Neuter Nominative jeder jede jedes alle Accusative jeden jede jedes alle Dative jedem jeder jedem allen Genitive jedes jeder jedes aller
Adjectival possessive pronouns (or possessive determiners) and kein decline similarly to the article ein. The general declension pattern is as shown in the following table: Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Nominative – -e – -e Accusative -en -e – -e Dative -em -er -em -en Genitive -es -er -es -er
Examples: Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Nominative kein keine kein keine Accusative keinen keine kein keine Dative keinem keiner keinem keinen Genitive keines keiner keines keiner Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Nominative dein deine dein deine Accusative deinen deine dein deine Dative deinem deiner deinem deinen Genitive deines deiner deines deiner Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Nominative ihr ihre ihr ihre Accusative ihren ihre ihr ihre Dative ihrem ihrer ihrem ihren Genitive ihres ihrer ihres ihrer Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Nominative euer eure euer eure Accusative euren eure euer eure Dative eurem eurer eurem euren Genitive eures eurer eures eurer Euer is slightly irregular: when it has an ending, its stem may be reduced to eur-, e.g. dative masculine eurem (also euerem).
Nouns
Only the following nouns are declined according to case: Masculine weak nouns gain an -n (sometimes -en) at the end in cases other than the singular nominative. e.g. der Student, des Studenten. A handful of masculine "mixed" nouns, the most common of which is der Name (the name), gain an -ns at the end in the singular genitive, e.g. der Name, des Namens, and otherwise behave exactly like weak nouns. The genitive case of other nouns of masculine or neuter gender is formed by adding either -s or -es, e.g. das Bild, des Bildes. Nouns in plural that do not already end in -n or -s (the latter mostly found in loanwords) gain an -n in the dative case. e.g. der Berg, die Berge, den Bergen. Most of these nouns are either masculine or neuter, but there is a group of feminine nouns that are declined in this way too. While this group comprises only a small minority of feminine nouns, it includes some of the most oft-used nouns in the language. e.g. die Hand, die Hände, den Händen. The irregular neuter noun das Herz behaves almost exactly like the masculine "mixed" nouns, except that it is not inflected in the singular accusative and inflection in the singular dative is optional especially in spoken German, e.g. das Herz, das Herz, dem Herzen or dem Herz, des Herzens.
There is a dative singular marking -e associated with strong masculine or neuter nouns, e.g. der Tod and das Bad, but this is rarely regarded as a required ending in contemporary usage, with the exception of fossilized phrases, such as zum Tode verurteilt ("sentenced to death"), or titles of creative works, e.g. Venus im Bade ("Venus in the Bath"): In these cases, the omission of the ending would be unusual. It also retains a certain level of productivity in poetry and music where it may be used to help with meter and rhyme, as well as in extremely elevated prose (such as might be found on memorial plaques).
Pronouns
Personal pronouns The genitive case for personal pronouns is currently considered archaicRankin J. & Wells L. D., Handbuch zur deutschen Grammatik, Third Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000, p. 209 and is used only in certain archaic expressions like "ich bedarf seiner" (I need him). This is not to be confused with possessive adjectives.
Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive ich – I mich – me mir – to/for me meiner – of me du – you (familiar singular) dich – you dir – to/for you deiner – of you er – he ihn – him ihm – to/for him seiner – of him sie – she sie – her ihr – to/for her ihrer – of her es – it es – it ihm – to/for it seiner – of it wir – we uns – us uns – to/for us unser – of us ihr – you (familiar plural) euch – you euch – to/for you euer – of you Sie – you (formal singular and plural) Sie – you Ihnen – to/for you Ihrer – of you sie – they sie – them ihnen – to/for them ihrer – of them
Note that unlike in English, "er" and "sie" can refer to any masculine or feminine noun, not just persons, while "es" can refer to a person described by a neuter noun: "das Kind, es..."; "das Mädchen, es..."
Interrogative pronouns
Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive Personal ("who/whom") wer wen wem wessen Impersonal ("what") was was Generally, prepositions that need to be followed by either case merge with "was" to form new words such as "wovon" ("whereof"), "woher" ("whence", "from where") or "weswegen" ("for what reason").
Relative pronouns
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Nominative der die das die Accusative den die das die Dative dem der dem denen Genitive dessen deren dessen deren
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Nominative welcher welche welches welche Accusative welchen welche welches welche Dative welchem welcher welchem welchen Genitive welches welcher welches welcher
Possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns are treated as articles in German and decline the same way as kein; see Indefinite article above.
Demonstrative pronouns
These may be used in place of personal pronouns to provide emphasis, as in the sentence "Den sehe ich" ("I see that"). Also note the word ordering: den corresponds to "that", and ich corresponds to "I". Placing the object at the beginning of the sentence places emphasis on it. English, as a generally non-declined language, does not normally show similar behavior, although it is sometimes possible to place the object at the front of a sentence for similar emphasis, as in: "Him I see, but I don't see John".Handbuch zur deutschen Grammatik, Third Edition, p. 213
The table is the same as for relative pronouns.
Reflexive pronouns
Reflexive pronouns are used when a subject and object are the same, as in Ich wasche mich "I wash myself".
Nominative (Subject) Accusative (Direct Object) Dative (Indirect Object) ich – I mich – myself mir – to/for myself du – you dich – yourself dir – to/for yourself er/sie/es/man – he/she/it/one sich – himself/herself/itself/oneself sich – to/for himself/herself/itself/oneself wir – we uns – ourselves uns – to/for ourselves ihr – you (pl.) euch – yourselves euch – to/for yourselves Sie – you (formal) sich – yourself/yourselves sich – to/for yourself/yourselves sie – they sich – themselves sich – to/for themselves
Indefinite pronouns The pronoun man refers to a generic person, and is usually translated as one (or generic you). It is equivalent to the French pronoun on. Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive man – one/you/they einen – one/you/them einem – to/for one/you/them sein – one's/your/their
Adjectives
Predicate adjectives Predicate adjectives (e.g. kalt in mir ist kalt "I am cold") are undeclined.Handbuch zur deutschen Grammatik, Third Edition, p. 169
Attributive adjectives
Strong inflection
Strong adjective declension is used when:Handbuch zur deutschen Grammatik, Third Edition, p. 170 there is no preceding article; or the preceding article does not fully indicate the case, gender, and number of the noun. Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Nominative -er -e -es -e Accusative -en -e -es -e Dative -em -er -em -en Genitive -en -er -en -er
Here is an example.