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Declinations of Nouns

A declination is a change in a word's appearance depending on the grammatical case. For example, the noun der Mann (the man) becomes des Mannes (of the man) in the genitive case, or the plural form die Mütter (the mothers) becomes den Müttern (to the mothers) in the dative case. In modern German, feminine nouns do not change their form according to case. Plural nouns add an -n to their plural form; unless they already end in an -n or in an -s. Most masculine and neuter nouns only change their form in the genitive, by adding either -s (usually in words with more than one syllable) or -es (usually in monosyllabic words). Examples:

  • der Freund, des Freundes (the friend, the friend's)
  • der Bruder, des Bruders (the brother, the brother's)
  • das Kind, des Kindes (the child, the child's).

Some masculine nouns, however, add an -n or -en to the accusative, the dative, and the genitive case.

Frequently used examples

Nominative:

  • der Herr (Mr., gentleman)
  • der Student (university student)
  • der Patient (patient)
  • der Junge (boy)
  • der Nachbar (neighbor)
  • der Kunde (customer)
  • der Bär (bear)

Accusative:

  • den Herrn
  • den Studenten
  • den Patienten
  • den Jungen
  • den Nachbarn
  • den Kunden
  • den Bären

Dative:

  • dem Herrn
  • dem Studenten
  • dem Patienten
  • dem Jungen
  • dem Nachbarn
  • dem Kunden
  • dem Bären.

Genitive:

  • des Herrn
  • des Studenten
  • des Patienten
  • des Jungen
  • des Nachbarn
  • des Kunden
  • des Bären.

See also:

Case system
Nominative
Accusative
Dative
Genitive
Pronouns, case inflections