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2.12 Case marking on the noun
GENITIVE
links nouns, especially to show Der Ton des Radios ist furchtbar. possession (see 8.6) The sound of the radio is awful. after a few prepositions (see 5.4) Sie lief trotz ihres hohen Alters schnell. She ran fast despite her advanced age.
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DATIVE
marks the indirect object of the verb Ich gebe dem Hamster sein Futter. (see 8.3) I’m giving the hamster its food. marks the sole (dative) object of some Sie will ihrem Freund helfen. verbs (see 8.3) She wants to help her friend. can show possession, esp.with clothing Sie zogen dem Verletzten die Hose aus. and parts of the body (see 8.4) They took the injured man’s trousers off. after some prepositions (see 5.2–5.3) Wir suchten überall nach dem Geld. We looked everywhere for the money. with many adjectives (see 4.4) Dieses Gespräch war mir sehr unangenehm. This conversation was very unpleasant for me.
The four cases are marked through endings in the noun phrase. In practice, it is the endings of the ARTICLES, DETERMINERS and ADJECTIVES (chapters 3 and 4) which indicate case most clearly, but sometimes there are endings on the noun to show case, too.
Regular nouns have the following forms in the four cases:
nom. der Vater die Väter die Frau die Frauen das Kind die Kinder acc. den Vater die Väter die Frau die Frauen das Kind die Kinder gen. des Vaters der Väter der Frau der Frauen des Kindes der Kinder dat. dem Vater den Vätern der Frau den Frauen dem Kind den Kindern
As the table shows, there aretwo special case endings with regular nouns:
Masculine and neuter nouns add -(e)s in the genitive singular. All nouns add -n in the dative plural (unless the plural ends in -n or -s).
Weak masculine nouns
This is a small group of masculine nouns that differ from the above pattern. They form their plural with -(e)n and also have this ending -(e)n in all the singular cases except the nominative. Their declension looks like this:
singular plural singular plural singular plural
nom. der Junge die Jungen der Student die Studenten der Herr die Herren acc. den Jungen die Jungen den Studenten die Studenten den Herrn die Herren gen. des Jungen der Jungen des Studenten der Studenten des Herrn der Herren dat. dem Jungen den Jungen dem Studenten den Studenten dem Herrn den Herren
-ant der Diamant,der Demonstrant -et der Komet,der Planet -aph der Photograph/Fotograf -ist der Journalist,der Tourist -arch der Monarch,der Patriarch -krat der Demokrat,der Bürokrat -at der Automat,der Soldat -nom der Astronom,der Ökonom -ent der Dirigent,der Präsident -ot der Idiot,der Exot
NB Herr is irregular: it has the ending -n in the singular, but -en in the plural.
These nouns typically denote humans or animals. There are three main groups: All masculine nounsending in -e, e.g. der Affe, der Bote, der Erbe, der Experte, der
Franzose, der Genosse, der Hase, der Hirte, der Insasse, der Jude, der Junge, der Kunde, der
Laie, der Riese, der Zeuge. Foreign masculine nouns with the following stressed SUFFIXES:
Some German masculine nouns ending in a consonant. The following are the most common:
der Bauer (gen.-n, pl.-n) farmer, peasant der Herr (gen.-n, pl.-en) gentleman der Fürst (gen.-en, pl.-en) prince der Mensch (gen.-en, pl.-en) human being der Held (gen.-en, pl.-en) hero der Nachbar (gen.-n, pl.-n) neighbour
Don’t confuse these WEAKMASCULINENOUNS with adjectives used as nouns like der Deutsche ‘the German’. These are explained in section 4.3.
Irregular masculine nouns
There are a fewirregular masculine nouns ending in -e that have a declension like the weak nouns, but their genitive singular ends in -ns:
singular plural
nom. der Name die Namen acc. den Namen die Namen gen. des Namens der Namen dat. dem Namen den Namen
These nouns are:
der Buchstabe letter (of alphabet) der Glaube belief der Funke spark der Name name der Gedanke thought der Wille will
NB The neuter noun das Herz (plural die Herzen) is similarly irregular: des Herzens (genitive singular), dem Herzen (dative singular).
Your dictionary will normally list the genitive ending after the gender and before the plural ending for a noun. This tells you how it changes its form depending on case, e.g.
Vater m -s, – → des Vaters Franzose m -n, -n → des Franzosen
