The Articles: Definite and Indefinite in the Nominative Case

In German, one of the purposes of the articles is to serve as a gender marker of the noun that follows it. They also show if the following noun is singular or plural. Finally, articles also show the case of the noun. In German, a case is a specific ending added to articles and adjectives to show the role that the following noun plays in the sentence such as the subject, direct object, etc. These are the articles for the nominative case. Different cases are discussed in separate lessons.

I. The Definite Article

The definite article in German typically takes the meaning of the in English. In the chart below, we see that each gender has its own distinct article with the plural and feminine both sharing die.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	der	die	das
Plural	die

Examples:

Der Mann spricht Deutsch. The man speaks German. Die Frau kommt aus der Schweiz. The woman is from Switzerland. Das Restaurant ist sehr schick. The restaurant is very chic. Er ist der Autor von diesem Roman. He is the author of this novel. Wie ist das Wetter heute? How is the weather today? Die Musik ist zu laut! The music is too loud!

II. The Indefinite Article

The indefinite article conveys the meaning of “a/an” in English. As you can see in the chart below, masculine and neuter nouns share the article ein. Therefore, the gender of the noun is not as easily determined when looking at the indefinite articles.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	ein	eine	ein
Plural	Ø

Examples:

Deutschland ist ein großes Land. Germany is a large country. Ein Hund wurde in dem Wald gefunden. A dog was found in the forest. Eine Familie wohnt in diesem Haus. A family lives in this house. Sie ist eine Freundin von mir. She is a friend of mine. Das ist ein großartiges Buch. That is a great book. Hohenzollern ist ein Schloss. Hohenzollern is a castle.

** Although ein is used before both Land and Hund, Land is neuter while Hund is masculine.

III. No indefinite article with plural nouns

Just like in English, the indefinite article is not used with plural nouns. The adjectives manche or einige can be used to convey some.

Examples:

Ich liebe Sprachen. I love languages. Einige Sprachen sind schwierig zu lernen. Some languages are difficult to learn. Deutsche Biere sind lecker. German beers are delicious. Manche Deutsche sprechen kein Englisch. Some Germans don’t speak English. Aufsätze von Kant sind sehr kompliziert. Essays by Kant are very complicated.