7/28/2023 0 Comments Articles in german grammar![]() ![]() Some people argued that JFK’s sentence would have been grammatically correct if he had in fact been talking about that dish. The only reason this became a funny story is that a “ Berliner” is also the name of a popular German dish: the delicious jelly-filled doughnut. Obviously, little mistakes like this happen when you’re speaking a foreign language. They would just say “ Ich bin Berliner” (male) or “ Ich bin Berlinerin” (female). That means a native speaker wouldn’t say “I’m a Berliner”. In English you might say “I’m a New Yorker” but as you know now, in German, you generally leave out the article for such statements. In a city separated into East and West by the wall, he talked about the struggles of the Soviet-controlled East and stated his support for West Germany, expressing solidarity with the city and famously proclaiming “Ich bin ein Berliner”. ![]() When stating a general affiliation or nationalityįor example, “Ich bin Tennisspielerin” (I’m a tennis player), "Ich bin Deutsche” (I’m German) or “Ich bin Berliner” (I’m a resident of Berlin).Using “spielen” (to play) in combination with a musical instrument or sportįor example, “Ich spiele Gitarre” (I play the guitar) or “Ich spiele Tennis” (I play tennis).After the prepositions “ohne” (without), “um” (around), and “bei” (at) when referring to a general ideaįor example, "ohne Grund" (without reason) or "bei Gelegenheit" (at some opportunity).With proper nouns like names of people or placesįor example, "Ich besuche Mila" (I'm visiting Mila).įor example, "Ich habe Zeit" (I have time) or "Sie hat Geld" (She has money).įor example, ”nächste Woche" (next week) or "letztes Jahr" (last year).įor example, "Zähne putzen" (to brush one’s teeth) or "zu Bett gehen" (to go to bed).There are some other instances when no article is used with a noun in German. So when referring to a category or a group, no article is used:įor example, "Hunde sind treu" (Dogs are loyal). Notice that indefinite articles have no plural form in English or German: Number/CaseĪs you saw, indefinite nouns have no plural. Indefinite articles chart in German Number/Case In German, there are three indefinite articles: In this case, it’s the first time you’re referring to the bouquet, so it’s indefinite. German: Ich habe gerade einen Blumenstrauß bekommen und ich weiß nicht, wer ihn geschickt hat. In English, if you’re referring to an unknown person or item, you use the article “a” or “an” if the noun starts with a vowel.Įnglish I just received a flower bouquet and I don’t know who gave it to me. Just make sure you study the charts and learn the correct gender of each new word as they’re usually hard to guess.Īn indefinite article in German is the article that accompanies a non-specific noun. Number/Caseĭon’t get discouraged! That might look like a lot of “der, die, das” with different meanings but you’ll get the hang of it. Here's the same chart with matching nouns: “der Mann” (the man: male), “die Frau” (the woman: female) and “das Tier” (the animal: neuter). These also change with number and case as the following chart shows: Definite articles chart in German Number/Case In German, there are three definite articles: German: Dies sind die Blumen, die mir mein Freund geschenkt hat. ![]() If you’re referring to a known person or item in English, you use the article “the”.Įnglish: These are the flowers my friend gave me. In German, there are three grammatical genders:Ī definite article in German is the article that accompanies a specific noun. These changes help to convey the function of a word within a sentence. German declensions are changes in the form of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate their grammatical case, gender, and number. When a word changes based on these factors, it’s called declension.
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