Word for german article

When you first start learning German, you might feel quite upbeat and optimistic, thinking “Ok, this doesn’t look that hard, some of it is quite similar to English, like “Good morning” = “Guten Morgen” or “Monday” = “Montag”, I can do this!”.

What’s an article?

And then you come across a little something called ARTICLES (cue dramatic music). Since when are articles a problem? In English, life is easy; if you know what you want, you just use THE, and if you don’t know what you want, you use A/AN. It doesn’t matter if that thing you want is a specific chair, book or apartment. You will, without thinking twice, be able to say

“I want the chair with the fluffy pink unicorns on it.”

“I want the book that the cute guy with the blue shirt is reading.”

or

“I want the apartment with the stunning rooftop view.”

In English, you would use the same definite article “the” in all three sentences. In German, however, nouns (i.e. chair, book, apartment) have different grammatical genders. What’s this “grammatical gender” thing, you ask?

German nouns have a gender

In German, words that refer to things, i.e. nouns (both tangible, like “chair”, and abstract, like “freedom”) have a gender, either their natural, biological, gender (woman, man, daughter, son, etc.), or their grammatical gender, which means that the thing that the article refers to does not have a natural (biological) gender, but that the language assigned a gender to it nevertheless.

Therefore, in German, the words from the above example also have genders, even though they do not originate from the characteristics of the object, but are assigned somewhat randomly. In German “chair” is masculine (DER Stuhl), “book” is neuter (DAS Buch) and “apartment” is feminine (DIE Wohnung).  The article DIE is also used to for the plural, irrespective of the singular gender, so

the chairs = DIE Stühle

the books = DIE Bücher

the apartments = DIE Wohnungen.

German definite articles table: der, die, das according to case and gender

Since German is a language that has cases, these articles change according to the grammatical case:

But, as you can see, there are similarities across genders and not all cases require different article forms. For example, the nominative/accusative cases for feminine and plural nouns are the same, and the same goes for the masculine and the neuter dative and genitive.

If you’re a German beginner, this table might seem quite daunting. But, apart from grouping the article forms according to their similarity, there is one other thing you can do to make your life easier – DROP THE GENITIVE CASE. That’s right; I just said you should ignore a whole case.

Ignore the genitive if you’re just starting out

Why? Because pretty soon the genitive case will no longer be with us. It will be pushing up the daisies and joining the choir invisible, like in the Monty Python’s Flying Circus “Dead Parrot” sketch.

There’s even a highly amusing book devoted to this topic, written by Bastian Sick and entitled “The Dative is to the Genitive its Death” (“Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod”), which you should definitely have a look at once you can read books in German.  What this title essentially means is that even native German speakers often use the dative instead of the genitive case and that pretty soon the genitive will cease to be used. Even now, the genitive is something you learn in German language courses only when you reach level B1 (intermediate user), or thereabouts. To sum up, you can have a pretty decent and grammatically correct conversation in German without ever using the genitive case.

When to use which article, der, die, or das?

After we have grouped our articles together according to their declension like in the table above and eliminated the genitive, life seems a bit easier. However, there is still the huge elephant in the room – how will you know when to use which article; DER, DIE or DAS?

For nouns that have a biological gender, this is easy.

Articles that follow the biological gender

• Masculine:
  • der Mann (the man), der Schüler (the pupil), der Student (the student), der Herr (the sir)
• Feminine:
  • die Frau (the woman), die Schülerin (the female pupil), die Studentin (the female student)

Occupations have both masculine and feminine forms. The feminine form is generally derived from the masculine by adding the ending “-in”, for example:

the teacher: der Lehrer / die Lehrerin

the boss: der Chef / die Chefin

the waiter: der Kellner / die Kellnerin

Some exceptions from the rule of “biological” gender are:

• the baby – das Baby
• the girl – das Mädchen
• the child – das Kind

Yes, you read that correctly – “the girl” in German is grammatically not feminine, but neuter (das Mädchen). You will find the reasoning behind this seemingly senseless and illogical feature of the German language in the following section.

Nouns with a grammatical gender

Unfortunately, the majority of nouns in German do not have a naturally occurring biological gender. But this doesn’t mean that you have to curl up in a ball in the corner of the room and cry. You do not have to learn ALL the genders of ALL the nouns by heart – there are shortcuts.

You can use the noun endings (also called suffixes) to solve approximately 50% of your article and noun gender-related problems. Simply learn which noun endings indicate which gender and you will know which article to use. That easy!

The following table shows some of the suffixes that indicate a specific gender.

German definite articles chart: suffixes that indicate gender

Although this table is not exhaustive or to be taken as 100% correct all of the time, it will work for you 9 out of 10 times for basically half the nouns in the German language. In my book, that’s worth a lot! So the next time you see a new word and it ends in, for example, –ung, -schaft, or –heit/-keit you already know that it’s gender is feminine. Or if something ends in –lein or –chen you know it’s a diminutive and therefore a neuter. Pretty cool, right?

Gender according to certain categories of meaning

One last shortcut to help you with your noun genders and articles is to learn certain categories of meaning that are always the same gender, such as the following.

Masculine:

• times of day, time of the year, months and days of the week (Morgen, Mittag, Abend, Frühling, Sommer, Januar, Februar, Montag, Dienstag…); Exceptions: DIE Nacht (night), DIE Mitternacht (midnight)
• directions: Süden (south), Norden (north), Osten (east), Westen (west), Südwesten (southwest)…
• weather-related words: Hurrikan (hurricane), Monsun (monsoon), Regen (rain), Schnee (snow), Wind (wind); Exceptions: DAS Eis (ice), DIE Kälte (the cold), DIE Hitze (heat), DIE Wolke (cloud) [But then, for Kälte, Hitze and Wolke you already know that they’re feminine, because they end in –e, right? ☺]
• alcoholic beverages: Cognac, Rum, Wein (wine); Exception: DAS Bier (beer)
• car brands: Audi, Fiat, Ford…

Feminine:

• motorcycle brands: Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha…
• names of ships: Titanic, Queen Elizabeth…
• names of cigarettes: Camel, Marlboro
• numbers used as nouns: die Zwei, die Hundert, die Million…

Neuter:

• names of colours: Blau, Rosarot, Schneeweiß…
• nouns that originate from verbs: Essen (eating), Lernen (learning), Reisen (travelling)…

So, to sum up, here is your ultimate survival kit for German articles/noun genders in one place:

1. Eliminate the genitive case from the declension table (well, at least for now)
2. Group the declensions of the definite article for the remaining three cases according to their similarity (check out the color-coded table I used before)
3. Try to remember some (or all) of the noun endings that indicate gender, this will help you recognize the gender of almost half the nouns in the German language!
4. Have a look at the different categories of words that are always the same gender

And last, but not least:

1. Whenever you learn a new word in German, learn its gender at the same time! This will make life so much easier for you later on. For instance, if you learn the German word for book, which is Buch, always learn and repeat it by including its article, e.g. when studying or taking notes on new vocabulary always say das Buch instead of just Buch.

Ideally, at this point you would also learn its plural form (since it is often irregular), like this:

das Buch – die Bücher

Finally, as someone who has been speaking German all their life and teaching it for 10 years, I would like to offer the following little nugget of wisdom with regard to German articles – don’t worry about them too much. It’s ok to learn their declension, the noun suffixes, etc., I stand by all of the advice I have given in this article. But even if you work really, really hard, study all the cases and endings, always write down the article when learning a new word, you will inevitably make mistakes. Learning a language is all about making mistakes. In fact, I would dare say that it’s much more important to make lots and lots of mistakes, have someone correct you and then learn from these mistakes, than to try to avoid them by not speaking at all. What’s important is to embrace this aspect of language learning and to not get frustrated about making the same mistake a million times.

What’s the best way to learn definite articles in German?

The best you can do to improve your language skills is take the German you know now, at this very moment, and go out into the world (or some online language learning community, for example) and USE IT. It won’t be perfect, it will be chaotic and messy, everything you thought you knew will just disappear and you will find yourself sounding like a complete beginner. And that’s perfectly ok! What’s most important when using a new language is simply being able to establish communication with another person. If you can’t communicate in a language, then you don’t really speak it, do you? And using the wrong article will generally not interfere with your communication or the message you are trying to convey. So, if I were somewhere in Germany, going for a leisurely walk in a historic town, and heard someone scream out

Hilfe! *Die Mädchen hat mir mein Handy gestohlen. (Help! The girl stole my mobile phone.)

I wouldn’t go into walk up to this person and say “Entschuldigung, meinten Sie nicht DAS Mädchen?” – “Excuse me, I believe you meant DAS Mädchen?” (although I might bring this up once the crisis was resolved ☺). No, I would go and try to help this person. It didn’t matter that they used the feminine article instead of the neuter, I could still understand what they were trying to say. That’s what I always emphasize with my students, that they shouldn’t make a fuss when they accidentally used the wrong article because I was still able to understand perfectly well what they were trying to say. And as long as I can do that, they are doing awesome.

Exposure and practice are key

Like with anything in life, learning articles takes a lot of patience and time. There are no quick fixes and it will not come to you overnight, but gradually and with experience. The more you expose yourself to the German language, the easier it will be for you. The best thing you can do is to immerse yourself as much as possible in the German language and culture – to listen to lots of German music, watch German TV shows (there are lots of options for free online) and just try to use it as often as you can. Clozemaster is great for this type of immersion. Whether you play the Grammar Challenge or just the Fast Track, you’ll get plenty of exposure to how German definite articles are used in context. The most successful language learners know that learning to speak a language isn’t about memorizing lots of tables by heart, but about having fun with it. So go out there, have some fun with German, and definite articles will follow suit.

Check out the German definite articles Grammar Challenge on Clozemaster – practice choosing and declining the correct definite article for thousands sentences in German!

One of the first questions you might have about learning German is how to say German articles, “the” , “a” and “an”.

But, the choices are a little more complicated in German. Instead of two options, you have 11: der, die, das, den, dem, des, ein, eine, einen, einem, and eines.

However, you shouldn’t let these articles intimidate you. Because there are plenty of guidelines that can help you choose right.

Like most other aspects of the German language, there are several systematic ways to learn the different articles. And you’re going to discover them in this post!

By the way, if you want to learn German fast and have fun, my top recommendation is German Uncovered which teaches you through StoryLearning®. 

If you’re ready to get started, click here for a 7-day FREE trial.

What Are Articles?

So articles are words like “a,” “an,” and “the”. These short articles precede nouns that can be people, places, or things.

Articles are simple in English. However, in German, you have over a dozen article options to choose from!

How To Pick The Right Article Declension 

Fortunately, German articles can tell you a lot more information about a sentence. And there are many effective ways of remembering which one to use when.

For example, German articles can reveal more about the noun:

• Number – Articles in German can tell you if a noun is singular or plural. 
• Gender – German articles indicate the gender of the noun they precede. 
• Case – You can also tell which words are the subject, direct object, and indirect object. Using the right articles, you’ll have the flexibility to change the word order without changing the meaning! In English, we don’t have this luxury. Because we have to stick to a specific sentence structure to make sense. 

So this guide will teach you how to use German articles correctly and boost your fluency.

Definite vs. Indefinite Articles In German

There are two general categories of articles:

• Definite Articles – In English, we use the word “the” to talk about a specific person, idea, or object. The three main definite articles in German are der, die, and das.
• Indefinite Articles – The words “a” and “an” allow us to speak about more generic people, places, or objects. In German, words like ein and eine are the equivalent.

Using the right definite and indefinite articles in German is often considered one of the most challenging aspects of learning the language.

But, all you really need is patience, practice. And the willingness to learn. 

The German Definite Articles

In German, definite articles change according to their gender, case, and number. But we’ll dive deeper into how to determine the gender of nouns and assign the correct articles later.

For now, let’s see what the options are:

Case/Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die
Dative	dem	der	dem	den

Above, you’ll see the three primary definite articles der, die, and das. The word “die” is also used in the plural form. In addition to gender, definite articles also have a case: nominative, accusative, or dative. If you haven’t already, learn more about The German Case System. 

So let’s look at a few simple examples of definite articles in sentences:

• Der Mann heißt Heinrich. (The man is named Heinrich.)
• Die Frau liest mir das Buch. (The woman reads the book to me.)
• Das Kind gibt dem Lehrer den Apfel. (The child gives the teacher the apple.)

Next, let’s look at what happens to adjectives used between definite articles and their nouns. 

Definite Article Adjective Endings

In addition, if you want to add an adjective between the definite article and a noun, you’ll need to add an appropriate German adjective ending. 

Adjective Endings	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	-e	-e	-e	-en
Accusative	-en	-e	-e	-en
Dative	-en	-en	-en	-en

In the table above, you’ll see the adjective ending is always ‘e’ for feminine and neuter nouns in the nominative and accusative cases.

The plural ending for adjectives following definite articles is ‘en’. But masculine words have an ‘e’ ending in the nominative case. And an ‘en’ ending in the accusative and dative cases. 

Next let’s add some adjectives to the previous example sentences so we can see how adjective endings work:

• Der kleine Mann heißt Heinrich. (The small man is named Heinrich.)
• Die nette Frau liest mir das Buch. (The nice woman reads the book to me.)
• Das kleine Kind gibt dem neuen Lehrer den frischen Apfel. (The young child gives the new teacher the fresh apple.)

In the first example, der Mann is masculine. And the subject uses the nominative with an e ending. In the next example, die Frau is a feminine noun in the nominative case, which is why you need an ‘e’ ending once again. 

Similarly, das Kind is a neuter noun in the nominative. And also takes an ‘e’ ending. Dem Lehrer is the indirect object receiving an object, which takes the dative case and an en ending. Den Apfel is the direct object, which takes the accusative case and an en ending.

The German Indefinite Articles

Similarly, indefinite German articles also change according to gender and case. 

Case/Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	ein	eine	ein
Accusative	einen	eine	ein
Dative	einem	einer	einem

So let’s plug those indefinite articles into sentences:

• Ich sehe einen Mann. (I see a man.)
• Wir treffen eine Frau. (We are meeting a woman.)
• Er hat ein Kind. (He has a child.)

All of the examples above are in the accusative case. However, each noun takes the form that corresponds to its gender.

Indefinite Article Adjective Endings

In a similar vein to definite articles, if you want to use an adjective after an article and before the noun, the adjective will need an ending. 

Adjective Endings	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	-er	-e	-es
Accusative	-en	-e	-es
Dative	-en	-en	-en

Notice that the feminine and neuter forms don’t change in the nominative or accusative, only in the dative case. But masculine articles change the most.

• Ich sehe einen alten Mann. (I see an old man.)
• Wir treffen eine reiche Frau in einem hohen Schloss. (We are meeting a rich woman in a tall castle.)
• Er hat ein zweites Kind mit einer anderen Frau. (He has a second child with another woman.)

In the first sentence, einen Mann is in the accusative case. And our adjective alt (old) takes an en ending. Next, eine Frau, also in the accusative case, requires an ‘e’ ending for its adjective reich (rich). Finally, both the second and third examples end with prepositional phrases in the dative case.

German Articles Have Genders

All German nouns have one of three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter, and require the corresponding articles.

But, how can you learn which words have which gender?

While some noun genders have to be memorized, you can identify others by various letter combinations. 

Firstly, some German noun genders are biologically determined.

• Masculine – Der Mann (the man), der Vater (the father), der Student (the male student), der Lehrer (the male teacher), der Mitarbeiter (the male employee), etc.
• Feminine – Die Frau (the woman), die Mutter (the mother), die Studentin (the female student), die Lehrerin (the female teacher), die Mitarbeiterin (the female employee), etc.
• Neuter – Das Baby (the baby), das Kind (the child), das Haus (the house)

Secondly, most occupational names have both masculine and feminine versions, depending on the gender of the person. In contrast, other German nouns follow grammatical gender patterns. 

Note that in English, we refer to objects as “it.” But in German, you use a pronoun that corresponds with the noun’s gender, er, sie, or es.

How To Know The Gender Of German Articles

Although not all German nouns follow a gender rule, some letter combinations and other guidelines can help you choose the right gender 9 times out of 10. 

• Firstly, over 65% of one-syllable words in German are masculine.
• Secondly, some suffixes are almost always masculine, like ant, er, and or.
• Thirdly, endings such as heit, keit, and ung are feminine.
• And finally neuter endings include chen, lein, um, and o. 

So, when you learn new German words, you also need to learn the gender. Then, you’ll need the gender to add the right endings to several other words in a sentence. Luckily, there are specific clues that often indicate a noun’s gender.

Now, let’s look at these hints in more detail to decide whether we need to use der, die, or das. 

Masculine Nouns And The Article der

Firstly, below are the suffixes that tend to indicate the masculine gender (der):

• ant – Diamant (diamond), Elefant (elephant), Praktikant (intern)
• ent – Student (student), Patient (patient), Assistent (assistant), Dozent (professor)
• er – Fahrer (driver), Maler (painter), Spieler (player)
• ich – Teppich (carpet), Rettich (radish)
• ismus – Kapitalismus (capitalism), Tourismus (tourism), Alkoholismus (alcoholism)
• ist – Kapitalist (capitalist), Tourist (tourist), Kommunist (communist)
• ling – Zwilling (twin), Frühling (spring)
• or – Autor (author),  Diktator (dictator), 

In addition, other masculine nouns include:

• Seasons – der Sommer (the summer), der Herbst (the fall), der Winter (the winter)
• Months – der Januar (January), der Februar (February), der März (March)
• Days – der Montag (Monday), der Dienstag (Tuesday), der Mittwoch (Wednesday)
• Map and compass directions – der Norden (north), der Suden (south), der Westen (west), der Osten (east)
• Cars and trains – der BMW, der Volkswagen, der Mercedes
• Many currencies – der Euro, der Dollar, der Cent
• Most mountains or lakes – der Mount Everest, der Mississippi, der Montblanc

Learning the categories and typical endings of words that tend to have a specific noun gender can make the learning process much more manageable. 

Also, German occupations can have either a masculine or feminine form. The masculine form usually ends in er or or. 

Examples: der Lehrer (the male teacher), der Professor (the male professor), der Fotograf (the male photographer), der Kellner (the male waiter)

Feminine Nouns And The Article die

Secondly, below are the tell-tale suffixes of feminine nouns (die):

• e – Blume (flower), Summe (sum), Katze (cat)
• ei – Polizei (police), Datei (data), Konditorei (confectionary)
• heit – Freiheit (freedom), Gesundheit (health), Sicherheit (security)
• ie – Garantie (guarantee), Fantasie (fantasy), Ökonomie (economy)
• ik – Grammatik (grammar), Mathematik (math), Musik (music)
• ion – Nation (nation), Funktion (function), Produktion (production)
• ität – Nationalität (nationality), Autorität (authority), Spontaneität (sponteneity)
• keit – Aufmerksamkeit (attention), Schwierigkeit (difficulty)
• schaft – Freundschaft (friendship), Landschaft (landscape), Gemeinschaft (community)
• ung – Erfahrung (experience), Empfehlung (recommendation), Zeitung (newspaper)
• ur – Natur (nature), Kultur (culture), Agentur (agency)

Other feminine nouns also include:

• Names of flowers – die Rose (rose), die Tulpe (tulip)
• Names of trees – die Kiefer (pine), die Buche (beech), die Eiche (oak)
• Most fruits – die Birne (pear), die Zitrone (lemon), die Melone (melon)
• Cardinal numbers – die Eins (one), die Zwei (two), die Drei (three)

In addition, feminine occupations add the ending –in.

Examples: die Lehrerin (the female teacher), die Professorin (the female professor), die Fotografin (the female photographer), die Kellnerin (the waitress)

Neuter Nouns And The Article das

Finally, the endings below usually indicate neuter (das) nouns.

• chen – Mädchen (girl), Häuschen (little house), 
• lein – Häuslein (little house), Mäuslein (little mouse), Fräulein (young woman)
• ma – Thema (topic), Drama (drama), Schema (diagram)
• ment – Moment (moment), Dokument (document), Experiment (experiment)
• nis – Geheimnis (secret), Gefängnis (jail), Kenntnis (knowledge)
• tel – Hotel (hotel), Viertel (quarter)
• tum – Eigentum (property), Königtum (kingdom), Christentum (christianity)
• um – Aquarium (aquarium), Museum (museum)

However, it’s important to note that there are exceptions to the rules. 

Examples: die Firma (company), der Reichtum (wealth), der Irrtum (mistake), der Zement (cement)

Compound Noun Genders

In addition, many words in German combine multiple nouns into a new word.

For example:

• die Baustelle (construction site)
• der Fahrplan (the timetable)
• das Kinderbuch (children’s book)

In most cases, the last word of the compound noun determines the gender. But, as usual, there are a few exceptions to the rule. 

1. der Teil (part) – Some compound nouns with Teil take neuter articles: das Gegenteil (opposite), das Einzelteil (individual part), das Abteil (compartment), das Oberteil (top piece), das Ersatzteil (replacement part), das Urteil (verdict).
2. der Mut (courage) – Many compound nouns containing Mut take feminine articles: die Armut (poverty), die Wehmut (sorrow), die Demut (humility), die Anmut (grace), die Großmut (generosity), die Langmut (patience).

Also, there are many other exceptions to the noun gender rules. But using the guidelines when in doubt will work 80% of the time.

Plural German Articles

Let’s take a moment next to understand how plural articles work in German. Plural nouns always use the article die in the nominative and accusative cases. 

• das Mädchen (the girl) – die Mädchen (the girls)
• der Junge (the boy) – die Jungs/Jungen (the boys)
• der Mann (the man) – die Männer (the men)

But in the dative plural case, die changes to den. 

• Ich gab den Mädchen Hausaufgaben. (I gave the girls homework.)
• Wir waren überrascht, von den Jungs zu hören. (We were surprised to hear from the boys.)
• Er war beeindruckt von den Männern und ihrer Arbeit.

When declining adjectives, definite articles’ plural ending is ‘en’ in the nominative, accusative, and dative cases. 

• die amerikanischen Mädchen (the American girls)
• Ich gab den faulen Mädchen Hausaufgaben. (I gave the lazy girls homework.)

Another reason to learn the genders of German words is to know if a noun is in its plural or singular form.

For example, the noun Mädchen (girl) is the same in both the singular and plural. So the only way to determine the sentence’s meaning is by examining the articles.

How Case Affects German Articles

To choose the right article declension, you’ll need to know the number, case, and gender. So you already learned how number and gender affect articles. But what about the cases?

So let’s look at German articles from a slightly different angle to see how they change according to the case.

The Nominative Case

Firstly, the nominative case is used for the subject of a sentence. Notice how the feminine and plural articles are the same.

Definite/Indefinite Articles	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	der/ein	die/eine	das/ein	die/keine

For example:

• Der/Ein Student lernt schnell. (The/A student learns fast.)
• Die/Eine Blume ist rot. (The/A flower is red.)
• Das/Ein Thema ist langweilig. (The/A topic is boring.)

All of the sentence subjects above use the nominative case of definite and indefinite articles.

The Accusative Case

Secondly, choose accusative case articles for the direct objects of sentences. The direct object of a sentence is the word receiving an action from the verb. 

Definite/Indefinite Articles	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Accusative	den/einen	die/eine	das/ein	die/keine

Notice that neuter and feminine nouns have the same articles in both the nominative, accusative, and plural. So far, only the masculine form changes: der becomes den and ein becomes einen.

Examples:

• Ich (nominative) kaufe den/einen Tisch (accusative). (I buy the/a table.)
• Ein Fahrer (nominative) liefert die/eine Zeitung (accusative). (A driver delivers the/a newspaper.)
• Meine Mutter (nominative) liest das/ein Buch (accusative). (My mother reads the/a book.)

The Dative Case

Thirdly, in the dative case, the most drastic changes take place. Use the dative for indirect objects of a sentence. Indirect objects are typically the person or thing being affected by the direct object. 

Definite/Indefinite Articles	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Dative	dem/einem	der/einer	dem/einem	den/keinen

Because the masculine and neuter articles are the same in the dative case, they’re easier to remember. Meanwhile, the feminine articles change into what appears to be the masculine nominative form. 

Examples:

• Der Mann (nominative masculine) gibt den Anzug (accusative masculine) der Reinigung (dative feminine). (The man gives the suit to the dry cleaner.)
• Die Professorin (nominative feminine) gibt dem Student (dative masculine) das Buch (accusative neuter). (The professor gives the student the book.)

Now comes the exciting part. German allows you to mix up the word order, as long as you use the correct articles to indicate the direct and indirect objects. 

• Der Mann (nominative masculine) gibt der Reinigung (dative feminine) den Anzug (accusative masculine). (The man gives the suit to the dry cleaner.)
• Die Professorin (nominative feminine) gibt das Buch (accusative neuter) dem Student (dative masculine). (The professor gives the student the book.)

Although the subject typically stays in the first position, you can place the direct and indirect object in either position in the sentence. 

Possessive Articles

In English, we show possession by adding an ‘s to a name or person. But, to indicate that something belongs to someone in German, you’ll need possessive articles. You’ll also need an ‘s‘ or ‘es’ ending on the noun’s end in the masculine and neuter forms. 

Definite/Indefinite Articles	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Possessive	des/eines	der/einer	des/eines	der/keiner

Once again, the masculine and neuter forms are the same, just as they are in the dative case. 

Examples:

• das Fahrrad des Mannes (The man’s bicycle)
• die Jacke der Frau. (The woman’s jacket)
• das Geheimnis des Hotels. (The hotel’s secret.)

Usually, masculine and neuter, one-syllable words add an ‘es’ ending while multiple-syllable words add an s ending.

How To Learn German Articles 

Below are a few study tips to help you learn the German articles more effectively:

• Firstly, learn nouns and their genders together.
• Secondly, neuter, feminine, and plural articles stay the same in the nominative and accusative cases.
• Thirdly, masculine and neuter, definite and indefinite articles are the same in the dative and possessive cases. 
• Finally, the feminine indefinite articles are the same in the dative and possessive cases.

Although learning the German articles does require some memorization of charts, the similarities are simple to recognize.

By creating connections between the articles and their use, you’ll learn to select the correct articles with ease.

Final Thoughts

So now you’ve started to master German articles, it’s time to put them into use! Practice makes perfect when it comes to article declensions.

So consider watching German movies or TV series with subtitles to become more familiar with articles.

In addition, reading in German is another fantastic way to start feeling more comfortable with the articles and the general language.

Now, you’re all set to speak German with more confidence and accuracy than ever before.

Bis zum nächsten mal! (Until next time)