German articles


German articles are used similarly to the English articles, a and the. However, they are declined differently according to the number, gender and case of their nouns.

Declension

The inflected forms depend on the number, the case and the gender of the corresponding noun. German articles - like adjectives and pronouns - have the same plural forms for all three genders.

Indefinite article

This article, ein-, is used equivalently to the word a in English, though it literally means one. Like its English equivalent, it has no direct form for a plural; in this situation a range of alternatives such as einige or manche would be used.
MasculineNeuterFemininePlural
Nominativeeineineine-eine
Accusativeeineneineine-eine
Dativeeinemeinemeiner-einen
Genitiveeineseineseiner-einer

The same endings are used for the negative indefinite article-like word, and the adjectival possessive pronouns, mein-, dein-, sein-, ihr-, unser-, euer/eur-, Ihr-.

Definite article

This table gives endings for the definite article, equivalent to English the.
MasculineNeuterFemininePlural
Nominativederdasdiedie
Accusativedendasdiedie
Dativedemdemderden
Genitivedesdesderder

The demonstrative pronouns and the relative pronoun as well as jed-, manch- and solch- take similar endings:
MasculineNeuterFemininePlural
Nominative-er-es-e-e
Accusative-en-es-e-e
Dative-em-em-er-en
Genitive-es-es-er-er

Under some circumstances the regular possessive pronouns are "replaced" by the genitive forms of other pronouns. English equivalents could be, "The king, whose army Napoleon had defeated..." or "The Himalayas, the highest parts of which were as yet unsurveyed...". They agree in number and gender with the possessor. Unlike other pronouns they carry no strength. Any adjective following them in the phrase will carry the strong endings.
Definite possessive — i.e. the genitive of the demonstrative pronoun der:
Interrogative possessive -- i.e. the genitive of the interrogative pronoun wer:
German articles and pronouns in the genitive and dative cases directly indicate the actions of owning and giving without needing additional words, which can make German sentences appear confusing to English-speaking learners. The gender matches the receiver's gender for the dative case, and the owner's gender for the genitive.
For further details as to the usage of German cases, see German grammar.