German articles

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Just like other Germanic (and Romance) languages, German distinguishes between definite and indefinite articles. Indefinite articles are only used in the singular. The appropriate article is chosen according to gender, case and number. In plural, there is no gender distinction, however. The cases are abbreviated as "nom." (nominative, subjective case), "gen." (genitive, possessive case), "dat." (dative, indirect object) and "acc." (accusative, direct object). They are always given in this order in German. The genders are abbreviated as "m" (masculine), "f" (feminine) and "n" (neuter). "pl." stands for plural.

Definite Articles (cf. multilingual articles (definite)

(m) (f) (n) pl.
nom. der die das die
gen. des der des der
dat. dem der dem den
acc. den die das die


Indefinite Articles (cf. multilingual articles (indefinite)

(m) (f) (n) pl.
nom. ein eine ein (keine)
gen. eines einer eines (keiner)
dat. einem einer einem (keinen)
acc. einen eine ein (keine)


There is no indefinite article in plural, but kein is given here, because this is one of the words that are declined like the indefinite article (including plural forms).



See also German articles (dialect case study)


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