Oh, this German language - there is such a thing as articles in it. Articles in German are of the following types: definite, indefinite, negative, zero. The definite articles are die, das, der- each of which is responsible for a certain genus. The indefinite article is ein. Negative - kein.
What is the difference between the definite article in German and the indefinite article?
The indefinite article is placed before nouns that have not yet been discussed - and which is mentioned for the first time. (Except for special cases, which you will read about below).
Das ist eine Katze. - It's a cat.
The definite article is used before a word that has already been discussed. Here again about the cat, but we met her in the last sentence, which means:
Die Katze ist schwarz. - This cat is black.
The indefinite article is also put if the speaker does not know at all whether there is at all in a given place at a given time an object that he needs: Wo ist hier ein Telefon?- Where is the phone?
The definite article is used when you are asking for something specific, describing something specific, mentioning something specific.
Compare here:
Gib mir ein Messer.
Gib mir das Messer.
What is the difference between these two examples? Both of them can be translated as: give me a knife. Only in the first variant, the one who asks does not care what kind of knife he will be given - any one will suit him. But in the second case: the one who asks has in mind a certain knife that he sees - and maybe even points to it with his finger.
Articles in German can also be declined for cases and numbers. Here's the definite article:
What words are used in which of the listed genders in the framework of this note, I will not tell. Stay tuned for the next article on the gender of German nouns.
Here is the indefinite article:
The negative article is the same indefinite, but with the letter k at the beginning. Therefore, I did not want to draw a separate table ... BUT! There is a very important difference between them. Therefore, catch the third tablet:
Notice the main difference? That's right - the plural with a negative article is used!
By the way, read about negation in German.
You need to know the tables with the declension of articles by heart - this is the beginning of time, which will be very useful in the future. In principle, the endings of all the listed articles are similar - and there is nothing wrong with them. If you are completely depressed and too lazy to learn this, try to discard the genitive - the last line in each tablet - you can catch up with it later, but at first you can do without it.
And one more hint: a woman in dative and genitive turns into a man!
There are a few more rules: when it is necessary to put a definite, and in what cases - an indefinite article. Sometimes the article is completely absent ... These are the cases we will now consider.
The definite article in German
Definite article in German it is usually placed before:
- Notable buildings: das Brandenburger Tor - Brandenburg Gate der Eiffelturm - Eiffel Tower.
- one-of-a-kind concepts : die Sonne- Sun, die Erde- Earth
- names of some countries: der Iraq, die USA
- geographical names : die Alpen- Alps, der Rhein– Rain
- organization names: das Finanzamt- finance department
- historical epochs and events: die deutsche Wiedervereinigung German reunification
- titles: der Papst- Pope of Rome die Queen- queen
- superlative adjectives: der beste Schüler- best student
Indefinite article put:
- after the verbs haben, brauchen and es gibt: Hast du eine Schwester? - Do you have a sister?
- when comparing: Sie spricht Deutsch wie eine Deutsche. She speaks German like a German.
- in designs: so ein, ein solcher, solch ein.
Zero article
The article is absent in the following cases:
- before nouns denoting material: aus Gold- made of gold aus Wolle- from wool
- before language names: Deutsch- German, Italianisch- Italian
- before the names of most countries, the names of cities and continents: Germany, Koln, Africa
- when contacting: Kinder!!!- Deeeee!!! freunde!!!- Friends!!!
- in the names of religious holidays: Ostern- Easter, Weihnachten- Christmas.
- in stable combinations and proverbs: Übung macht den Meister- Practice makes perfect zu Fuss- on foot
- often when listed: Neue Wohnhäuser, Schulen, Krankenhäuser wird gebaut. New houses, schools, hospitals are being built.
- before uncountable nouns: Liebe- Love, Luft- air
- before proper names (although in some regions they are very fond of endowing human names with definite articles): Guten Tag, Frau Müller!- Good afternoon, Frau Müller!
- before professions and nationalities in such phrases: Sie ist Friseurin.- She is a hairdresser. Er ist Franzose. - He is French.
may be proposed as:
- article
- relative pronoun
- demonstrative pronoun
1. Signs of the article:
♦ The article usually precedes the noun and agrees in gender, number and case with it. But it can also be separated from the noun by one or more definitions.
For example: die schöne Frau ( beautiful woman); der alte, kranke, arme Mann ( old, sick, poor man)
2. Signs relative pronoun der, die, das :
♦ they are at the beginning of a subordinate clause
♦ they are preceded by a comma. Are being translated which/th/th/s:
Der Mann, der
dortsteht, ist mein Vater. Man, which standing there, there is my father.(Here we have I. p.)
♦ Their gender depends on the noun or pronoun in the main clause, and their case depends on their function in the subordinate clause.
Ich kenne den Herrn, den
ich jetzt sehe. I know mister whom I see now.(And here - V. p.)
du kennst die Frau, die dieses Buch geschrieben hat. You know a woman which wrote this book.
Das Gebaude, das Sie sehen, ist Filiale unserer Firma. Building, which You see, a branch of our company.
♦ Relative pronouns are inflected as a definite article.
3. Signs demonstrative pronoun der, die, das :
♦ Der(masculine singular I. p.) translate this, that, he/she/it:
Ich weiss nothing. Frag den Meister, der weiss Bescheid. I don't know. Ask the master, he/this (everything) knows.
♦ In the dative case die(f. r. unit h.) turns into der and translated this, that, he/she/it:
Kennst du Karin? — Nein, mit der bin ich nicht bekannt. Do you know Karin? - No, I'm with her do not know.
♦ Die, as demonstrative pronoun singular zh.r., translated into words ta, he
:
Sie kennen die Regel noch nicht gut genug und müssen die
wiederholen. You don't know the rule well enough, and you must his
repeat.
♦ In the plural for all three genders, be translated by the word They
:
Kennst du die neuen Kollegen? Do you know new colleagues?
Ja, ich kenne die
gut. Yes I their
know well.
♦ Das, as a demonstrative pronoun, is translated in the same way as der .
Kennen Sie das Buch? — Nein, ich kenne das nothing. Do you know the book? — No, I her Don't know.
Articles in German have important grammatical functions. They express the gender, number, case and category of definiteness and indefiniteness of the noun they stand before.
Types of articles
German articles divides by three genera: singular der or ein- for masculine das or ein- for the average, die or eine- for feminine and for plural - article die.
Articles der, das, die – certain And ein, eine – uncertain. The category of certainty indicates that the subject being discussed is selected from a multitude of similar ones and is known to the interlocutors, i.e. contextual or unique.
The indefinite article in German carries novelty information about an object in a given context, introduces interlocutors to a new object that has appeared in the field of communication and is replaced in repeated use by a definite article. For example:
Ich sehe da ein Mädchen. Das Mädchen wine.
I see (some) girl there. She is crying.
It is easy to see what shades of information both articles convey: in the first case, the girl has just appeared in our context, we do not know her yet, she is one of many for us, some kind of girl in other words. In the second sentence we already use definite article in german, because we continue to talk about that girl, a specific girl, who is standing there, so in the translation we can safely replace the word “das Mädchen” simply with the word “she”, since it is already clear who we are talking about.
German article table
It is very important to understand the logic when the subject is not yet defined and when it is already becoming defined, i.e. acquaintances, in each specific situation, otherwise there may even be misunderstandings in dealing with the Germans. It is impossible to use only certain or indefinite articles, both of which carry their own grammatical and semantic functions and loads in the language system. Therefore, for clarity - below German article table to begin with in the nominative case (who? what?).
Declension of articles in German by cases
We use the nominative case when we answer the question “who?”, “What?”, i.e. we call the object, in other words, it itself produces an action, being a subject. If the action is directed at the object, and it acts as the object of this action, then the noun begins to change in cases. Article declension in German is unthinkable without the participation of the article, unlike Russian, where the very form of the word changes due to the ending or other ways of word formation. Therefore, as "Our Father" you need to know the following article declension tables:
Declension of the definite article
| Casus case |
maskulinum masculine |
Neutrum Neuter gender |
Femininum Feminine |
Plural Plural |
| Nominative Wer? Was? Who? What? |
der | das | die | die |
| Genitive Wessen? Whose? |
des | des | der | der |
| Dative Wem? Wo? To whom? Where? |
dem | dem | der | den |
| Accusative Wen? Was? Wohin? Whom? What? Where? |
den | das | die | die |
Declension of the indefinite article
| Casus case |
maskulinum masculine |
Neutrum Neuter gender |
Femininum Feminine |
*
Plural Plural |
| Nominative Wer? Was? Who? What? |
ein | ein | eine | keine |
| Genitive Wessen? Whose? |
eines | eines | einer | keiner |
| Dative Wem? Wo? To whom? Where? |
einem | einem | einer | keinen |
| Accusative Wen? Was? Wohin? Whom? What? Where? |
einen | ein | eine | keine |
* Since the indefinite article ein derived from the numeral eins= one, then in the plural ein is inappropriate, but negation is declined in a similar way kein= none, for plural - keine= none.
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Everything is much more complicated.
There is an article here der for masculine nouns die- for women das- for medium and die- for plural nouns. But the form of these articles varies depending on the context, and they sometimes take the form dem or den.
Don't be intimidated - with a fair amount of practice, you will begin to understand how to use articles on an intuitive level (at least that's how I reassure myself).
Top tip for learning der, die and das: memorize nouns with articles!
And now to the rules.
Although using der, die, and das before each noun seems completely unsystematic, there is still a certain logic:
- If the word ends in -or, -ling, -smus or -ig, the masculine article is always used with it der, as with der Tor (gate), der Feigling (cow), der Journalismus (journalism), and der Honig (honey), respectively.
- If the word ends in -ung, -keit, -schaft, -tät, -ik, -tion, -heit or -ei, with it the feminine article is always used die. For example, die Ahnung (idea), die Möglichkeit (opportunity), die Wissenschaft (science), die Qualität (quality), die Semantik (semantics), die Situation (situation), die Dunkelheit (darkness) and die Bäckerei (bakery).
- Very often (though not always) words ending in -e also used with the article die, such as die Lampe (lamp).
- Article die always used with plural nouns (with the exception of the dative case, which we will return to later).
- If the word ends in -chen, -ma, -um, -ment, -lein or -tum, then the article is used with it das, as in das Würstchen (sausage), das Schema (diagram), das Christentum (Christianity), das Medikament (medicine), das Fräulein (lady), and das Eigentum (property).
- Article das also often used with technical, mechanical, and scientific nouns.
At least now you have something to focus on. True, there are many more German words with other endings. Unfortunately, you can only find out their gender and, accordingly, which article to use with them using a dictionary.
Things get more complicated when you encounter any case other than the nominative.
Accusative (Akkusativ)
In the accusative case, the article der changes to den. Fortunately, the rest of the articles remain the same.
Let's see how it works. To make everything very clear with the family, let's talk about men and women. Take the sentence "A woman hit a man" (Note that we don't encourage violence of any kind, but it happens sometimes, doesn't it?)
"Man" is definitely masculine, der Mann, and "woman" is feminine, die Frau. Since a woman beats a man (oh, crazy world!), then there is an accusative case. Remember: the only article that changes in the accusative case is the masculine article. The result is the following: Die Frau schlug den Mann.
Dative case (Dativ)
If the noun in the sentence is in the dative case, then the article changes again: der on dem, die on der, das on dem And die for plural in den.
Let's look at a few examples to put everything in its place.
"I waited in line for five hours."
The noun "queue" in German is feminine die Schlange. Because in the dative case, die becomes der, the sentence would be:
Ich habe funf Stunden in der Schlange gewartet.
Another example: "The glass is on the table."
In the dative case there is a masculine noun der Tisch (table). Thus, the proposal is as follows:
Der Becher ist auf dem Tisch.
"Oranges under the sofa." (How did they get there?!)
In the dative case, the neuter article das Sofa changes to dem. And the proposal in full will be as follows:
Die orange sind unter dem sofa.
Genitive case (Genitiv)
Belonging to someone or something can be expressed using the preposition von: das Auto von Tom (Tom's car).
But in writing it is better to use the genitive case, in which the articles change as follows: der on des, die on der, das on des And die for plural in der, for example: das Kleid der Frau "woman's dress", das Auto des Mannes "man's car". (When everyone gets what they need, you can do without physical assault, right?)
Well, you can take a breath. It's not that bad. Remember that the article in many cases depends on the ending of the noun, memorize these endings and practice, practice and practice again.
And repeat like a mantra: “100 million German speakers have mastered this. And I can too.”
There is no such thing as just a tree in German. May be or ein Baum [ain baum] - one (any) tree, order Baum [dea baum] - that (same) tree.
In other words, before all nouns there is a function word that expresses its definiteness or indefiniteness - a definite or indefinite article. In the example above: ein is the indefinite article, and der- definite article (masculine).
Different articles correspond to different genders:
Let's look at examples:
Gibt es hier in der Nähe eine Bar? Is there (one) bar nearby?
You used the indefinite article because you don't know what a bar is and whether there is one at all. You will be answered:
Ja, ich kenne hier eine Bar. – Yes, I know (one) bar here.
This is, of course, a very specific bar. Why is the indefinite article used? The fact is that the indefinite article can mean not only some one(as in your question) but also one of(as in the answer). That is, it can express not only uncertainty, but also the belonging of a particular thing to a general concept: This is one of the bars..
Finally, you have already approached the bar and, surprised at its homeliness, exclaim:
East das eine Bar? - And this is a bar? And this is one of the bars?
To which your companion, without losing his composure, replies:
Ja, das ist eine Bar. – Yes, this is a bar, this is one of the bars.
He loves this bar and adds:
Die Bar ist gut. - This bar is good.
Here, as you can see, there is a definite article.
So, if you simply name or characterize something (thus raising the particular to the general), then you need to use the indefinite article:
Unser Präsident ist ein Mensch wie du und ich. “Our president is as human as you and me.
Compare:
Das ist der Mensch. - This is the same person. (Which we already talked about. Der- masculine definite article.
Here you do not name, but indicate.
True, if you name the occupation, profession or nationality, then it is better to do without the article at all:Ich bin Geschäftsmann. - I am a businessman(verbatim: business person).
Sie arbeitet als Krankenschwester. - She is a nurse(verbatim: as a nurse, as a nurse).
Ich bin Deutscher. - I am German.
But:
Ich weiß, dass du ein Künstler bist. – I know that you are an artist (in the broadest sense).
Here we mean not so much the occupation as the characteristic of a person, the correlation of the particular with the general: you belong to the category of artists, you are one of them.
In addition, you can do without the article when it comes to feelings, substances and materials, or simply about something common, indivisible and incalculable (that is, about something that is rarely talked about one of a kind or the same):
Compare, however:Jeder Mensch braucht Liebe. “Every person needs love.
Die Tasche ist aus Leder. This bag is made of leather.
Ich habe Durst. - I'm thirsty. Literally: I'm thirsty(Not one thirst and not that thirst, but just thirst).
Ich trinke Bier. - I drink beer.
Die Deutschen essen viel Schweinefleisch. The Germans eat a lot of pork.
Wir haben Gluck. - We are lucky (literally: we have happiness).
in Zukunft - in the future.
Ich trinke ein Bier. I will drink one (= one mug) beer.
Ich esse ein Schweinefleisch. I will eat one serving of pork.
Ich trinke das Bier. I drink (or will drink) this beer.
Ich esse das Schweinefleisch. I eat (or eat) this pork.
Here we are no longer dealing with articles, but with independent words, words with their own stress.
Sometimes the article is needed purely formally, to clarify the case:
Ich ziehe Wein dem Wasser vor. – I prefer wine to water.
Unter dem Schnee - under the snow.
With a definite article, a word can be used not only if it denotes something specific, but also if it has a general meaning, that is, it denotes a set of specific things (general, but at the same time divisible, calculable):
Der Menschist, was er isst. - Man is what he eats.
The article may not be in the enumeration or in already established speech turns and in sayings:
mit Weib und Kind - with a wife and a child (or children) (that is, the whole family).
in Familie und Beruf - in the family and in the profession (that is, at work).
Ende gut - alles gut. - The end is the crown of business(verbatim: the end is good - all is well).
Zeit ist Geld. - Time is money.
And also in newspaper headlines, announcements, telegrams, commands (for brevity):
Bankräuber nahm Kind als Geisel. The bank robber took the child hostage.
Einfamilienhaus zu verkaufen. - Single-family house for sale.
Hande hoch! - Hands up!
The article is also omitted when naming various time periods in phrases like:
Es ist Abend. – Evening(verbatim: it is evening).
Heute ist Mittwoch. - Today is Wednesday.
As a rule, the definite article is not needed before the names, since they themselves designate certain persons:
Auf Klaus ist Verlass. - You can rely on Klaus(verbatim: there is trust).
Quite often, in everyday colloquial language, the article is still put, which somehow enlivens the speech:
Weiß jemand, wo der Klaus ist? Does anyone know where (this) Klaus is?
The article is placed before the surname in the plural, and also if the name has a definition:
As for cities and countries, they mostly do without the article:Die Meyers sind eine glückliche Familie. The Mayers are a happy family.
die kleine Susanne-little Susanna.
der grosse Goethe-great Goethe.
Österreich (Austria), Wien (Vienna)…
Exceptions to this rule:
die Dominikanische Republik, die Mongolei, die Schweiz, die Slowakei, die Türkei, die Ukraine, die Zentralafrikanische Republik.
der Iraq, der Iran, der Jemen, der Kongo, der Libanon, der Niger, der Sudan, der Tschad, der Vatikan