An Overview of Declensions in German

 What's declension?

Declension is the variation of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives to indicate their grammatical role in a sentence, such as subject, object, or possessive. This involves changing their form to reflect case, number, and gender. Different languages, like German, use declensions to show these relationships.

In German, nouns, pronouns, and articles change depending on their role in the sentence, and this is shown through four grammatical cases:

1. Nominative (Subject): Identifies the subject of the sentence—the person or thing performing the action.

   • Example: Der Hund spielt. (The dog is playing.)

2. Accusative (Direct Object): Marks the direct object—the person or thing receiving the action.

   • Example: Ich sehe den Hund. (I see the dog.)

3. Dative (Indirect Object): Indicates the indirect object—the person or thing that benefits from the action.

   • Example: Ich gebe dem Hund das Futter. (I give the dog the food.)

4. Genitive (Possession): Shows possession or relationship between two nouns.

• Example: Das ist das Haus des Mannes. (That is the man's house.)

Article and pronoun changes are key indicators of the case. For example:

• Nominative: der Mann (the man)
• Accusative: den Mann (the man)
• Dative: dem Mann (to the man)
• Genitive: des Mannes (of the man)

Declension of Articles and Nouns

Definite articles (the)

Case	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 articles (a/an)

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	ein	eine	ein	It doesn’t
Accusative	einen	eine	ein	exist
Dative	einem	einer	einem
Genitive	eines	einer	eines

👀Keep in mind:

Nominative: easy. There's no changes.

Accusative: only the masculine articles change (der/ein → den/einen )

Dative: 

• The ending -em is the same for masculine and neuter (dem/einem).
• For some plural nouns, add -en or -n to the noun. (die Männer →  dem Männern)

Genitive:

• -es for masculine and neuter nouns.
• -er for feminine nouns and the plural.
• Add an -s or -es to masculine and neuter nouns. Feminine nouns have no genitive ending.
• der Varter → des Vaters
• der Mann → des Mannes
• Nouns ending in s, ß, x or z, add -es in the genitive (for sure). Sometimes, also double the final -s.
• der Einfluss → des Einflusses
• der Bus → des Busses
• With some nouns, both -es and -s are correct (-es sounds a bit more formal).
• das Kind → des Kinds        das Kind → des Kindes
• das Jahr → des Jahrs       das Jahr → des Jahres

Genitive endings with proper nouns:

• Proper nouns also take an -s in the genitive.
• Mozarts Opern (Mozart's operas)
• Goethes Werke (Goethe's works)
• Nouns ending in s, ß, x or z, just add an apostrophe:
• Strauss’ Opern (Strauss' operas)
• Max Musters' Buch (Max Musters' book)

case	the Man	the woman	the kid	the people
nominative	der Mann	die Frau	das Kind	die Leute
accusative	den Mann	die Frau	das Kind	die Leute
dative	dem Mann	der Frau	dem Kind	den Leuten
genitive	des Mannes	der Frau	des Kindes	der Leute

nominative	ein Vater	eine Mutter	ein Kind
accusative	einen Vater	eine Mutter	ein Kind
dative	einem Vater	einer Mutter	einem Kind
genitive	eines Vaters	einer Mutter	eines Kindes

N-Deklination

Masculine nouns that form their plural by ending in -n or -en require these endings in all cases except the nominative. This means that for the accusative, dative, or genitive cases, you add -n or -en to the end of the noun. For example:

• Nominativo: Der Nachbar ist freundlich. (The neighbor is friendly.)
• Acusativo: Ich sehe den Nachbarn. (I see the neighbor)
• Dativo: Ich gebe dem Nachbarn ein Buch. (I give a book to the neighbor.)
• Genitivo: Das ist das Auto des Nachbarn. (That is the neighbor's car.)

❗BUT, of course, there are exceptions. For example: The noun "Autor" (author) does not use n-declension despite its plural ending in -en. Here’s how it is declined:

Singular:

Nominativo: der Autor (the author)

Acusativo: den Autor (the author)

Dativo: dem Autor (to the author)

Genitivo: des Autors (of the author)

Plural:

Nominativo: die Autoren (the authors)

Acusativo: die Autoren (the authors)

Dativo: den Autoren (to the authors)

Genitivo: der Autoren (of the authors)

Here's a list of exceptions that do not use n-deklination despite its plural ending in -en:

• Herr (Mr./man)
• Singular: der Herr
• Plural: die Herren
• Pilot (pilot)
• Singular: der Pilot
• Plural: die Piloten
• Kamerad (comrade)
• Singular: der Kamerad
• Plural: die Kameraden
• Gegner (opponent)
• Singular: der Gegner
• Plural: die Gegner
• Junge (boy)
• Singular: der Junge
• Plural: die Jungen
• Freund (friend)
• Singular: der Freund
• Plural: die Freunde
• Soldat (soldier)
• Singular: der Soldat
• Plural: die Soldaten
• Bote (messenger)
• Singular: der Bote
• Plural: die Boten
• Professor (professor)
• Singular: der Professor
• Plural: die Professoren
• Zahn (tooth)
• Singular: der Zahn
• Plural: die Zähne
• Etc... 😭

More:

Accusative and dative of artcles and nouns - Quiz

Genitive of articles and nouns - Quiz

Declensions of articles and nouns (all three cases) - Quiz

Von + Dative Quiz