IN German, as in Russian, every noun has a gender. And how is this kind expressed? Using the article!

Important: It is not at all necessary that the same word in German and Russian will have the same gender.

All nouns in German are always preceded by a function word - the definite or indefinite article.

Today we will dwell in detail on the definite article. So, as can be seen from the table:
article der– for masculine singular
article das– for neuter singular
article die– for feminine singular
article die– for plural

Since the gender of a noun in German and Russian often does not coincide, We always teach this word together with the article: not just “Tisch”, but “der Tisch”. Otherwise, you simply will not be able to construct a sentence correctly without knowing the gender of the noun.

Declension of the definite article.

Definite article changes depending on the case, so we see in which case the given noun is:

Hints hinting which article to use (what gender the noun has)

So, as you already understand, we learn all new words together with the article.

But is there a way to determine what kind of noun and what article to use? Yes, there are some tips to take note of!

Feminine (die):

1. Nouns ending in -ung, -schaft, -keit, -heit, -in, ei.

die Acht ung- respect

die Freund schaft- friendship

die Einsam keit- loneliness

die Frei heit– freedom

die Freund in- girlfriend

die Backer ei– bakery

2. Foreign words ending in -age, -ade, -ät, -ie, -ik, -ion, etc.

die Band age– bandage

die Ball ade– ballad

die Fakult ät- faculty

die Akadem ie– academy

die Akrobat ik– acrobatics

die Diskuss ion- discussion (exceptions: das Stad ion, der Sp ion)

Masculine (der):

1. Nouns ending in -er, -ling, -s.

der Lehr er- teacher

der Fremd ling– alien

der Fuch s- fox

2. Foreign words ending in -al, -ant, -or, -ier, ist, etc. (most often mean names of persons)

der Admiral - admiral

der Demonstr ant– demonstrator

der Agitat or- agitator

der Bank ier - banker

der Art ist - artist

3. Seasons, months, days, hours and days (exception – die Nacht)

der Sommer - summer

der February - February

der Abend - evening

4. Cars

der Audi – Audi

der Ferrari – Ferrari

der Abend - evening

5. Natural phenomena

der Sturm - storm

der Nebel – fog

Everything is much more complicated.

There is an article here der for masculine nouns, die- for women, das- for average and die- for plural nouns. But the form of these articles varies depending on the context, and they sometimes take the form dem or den.

Don't be alarmed - with a fair amount of practice, you will begin to understand how to use articles on an intuitive level (at least that's what I reassure myself).

Top tip for learning der, die and das: remember nouns along with articles!

And now to the rules.

Although the use of der, die and das before each noun seems completely haphazard, there is still a certain logic:

• If the word ends in -or, -ling, -smus or -ig, the masculine article is always used with it der, as with the words der Tor (gate), der Feigling (cow), der Journalismus (journalism) and der Honig (honey), respectively.
• If the word ends in -ung, -keit, -schaft, –tät, -ik, -tion, -heit or -ei, the feminine article is always used with it die. For example, die Ahnung (idea), die Möglichkeit (opportunity), die Wissenschaft (science), die Qualität (quality), die Semantik (semantics), die Situation (situation), die Dunkelheit (darkness) and die Bäckerei (bakery).
• Very often (though not always) words ending in -e also used with the article die, such as die Lampe (lamp).
• Article die always used with plural nouns (except for the dative case, which we will return to later).
• If the word ends in -chen, -ma, -um, -ment, -lein or -tum, then the article is used with it das, as in das Würstchen (sausage), das Schema (scheme), das Christentum (Christianity), das Medikament (medicine), das Fräulein (lady) and das Eigentum (property).
• Article das also often used with technical, mechanical and scientific nouns.

At least now you have something to focus on. True, there are still many German words with other endings. Unfortunately, you can only find out their gender and, accordingly, which article to use with them using a dictionary.

Things get more complicated when you encounter any case other than the nominative case.

Accusative case (Akkusativ)

IN accusative case, article der changes to den. Fortunately, the rest of the articles remain the same.

Let's see how it works. To make everything very clear with gender, let's talk about men and women. Let’s take the sentence “A woman hit a man” (Let’s make it clear that we do not encourage violence of any kind, but sometimes it happens, right?)

“Man” is of course masculine, der Mann, and “woman” is feminine, die Frau. Since a woman beats a man (oh, crazy world!), the accusative case takes place. Remember: the only article that changes in the accusative case is the masculine article. As a result, we get the following: Die Frau schlug den Mann.

Dative case (Dativ)

If a noun in a sentence is in dative case, then the article changes again: der on dem, die on der, das on dem And die for plural of den.

Let's look at a few examples to make things fall into place.

“I waited in line for five hours.”
The noun "queue" in German is feminine, die Schlange. Because in the dative case die becomes der, then the sentence will be as follows:
Ich habe fünf Stunden in der Schlange gewärtet.

Another example: “The glass is on the table.”
The masculine noun der Tisch (table) is in the dative case. So the sentence comes out as follows:
Der Becher ist auf dem Tisch.

"Oranges under the sofa." (How did they get there?!)
In the dative case, the article of the neuter noun das Sofa will change to dem. The entire proposal would be as follows:
Die Orange sind unter dem Sofa.

Genitive case

Belonging to someone or something can be expressed using the preposition von: das Auto von Tom (Tom's car).

But in writing It is better to use the genitive case, in which the articles change as follows: der to des, die to der, das to des And die for the plural of der eg: das Kleid der Frau "woman's dress", das Auto des Mannes "man's car". (When everyone gets what they need, there's no need for physical violence, right?)

Well, you can breathe out. It's not that bad. Remember that the article in many cases depends on the ending of the noun, learn these endings and practice, practice and practice again.

And repeat like a mantra: “100 million German speakers have mastered this. And I can do it too.”

As you know, in the German language there are two types of articles (art.): indefinite and definite, as well as zero, when there is no article. In German art. They cannot be used without a noun (noun), and almost always a noun is used with an art. (uncertain or definite), except in certain cases. Both indefinite and definite art. perform an absolutely important function in a sentence - they primarily determine the gender (p.), number and case of the noun.

The indefinite article (indefinite article) in German is the art. ein, which varies by gender:

ein – art. for noun male and middle age (ein Haus - house, ein Mann - man, person, ein Buch - book, ein Tisch - table)

eine – art. for noun female r. (eine Frau - woman, eine Vase - vase, eine Tochter - daughter, eine Schwester - sister)

and cases:

As can be seen from the table, the noun itself, with the exception of the noun. masculine and neuter in the genitive case, not declined.

Neop. art. used in cases where:

• we are talking about some object being mentioned for the first time or about an unknown object (in this case, the non-op. art. can be translated as “some kind”):

Gestern traf ich einen wunderbaren Knaben. – Yesterday I met a wonderful young man.

Da steht ein Mann. - There is (some) man standing there.

• there is a comparison:

Du siehst wie ein Engel aus! – You look like an angel!

Er verhält sich wie ein wirklicher Edelmann. “He behaves like a real nobleman.”

• the noun is preceded by the verbs brauchen, haben or the impersonal phrase es gibt:

Es gibt ein altes Haus in der Straße. – There is an old house on (this) street.

Ich habe ein Kleid. - I have a dress.

Du brauchst einen neuen Sessel. -You need a new chair.

Note. The word brauchen does not require neop after itself. art. before words like: Hilfe, Liebe, Freundschaft, Warmheit, names of seasons etc.

Ich brauche Hilfe. - I need help.

• it does not matter what subject we are talking about; in this case unop. art. can also be translated as “some” or “any”:

Ich muss einen Fernseher kaufen. – I have to buy (some) TV.

• We are talking about one of the similar items:

Nimm bitte eine Blume aus dem Bouquet. – Please take a flower from the bouquet.

Ein Mädchen in dieser Gruppe ist meine Tochter. – One of the girls in this group is my daughter.

There is also a turnover that includes non-op. art. and expressing the selection of one object from other similar ones – eine (-s, -r) der. Eine(-s, -r)der translated as “one (one, one) of...”. In this case, unop. art. masculine and neuter in nominative case looks a little different: to art. The masculine gender is added at the end -r, to art. neuter is added at the end – s . In other cases art. declines unchanged. Neop. art. The feminine gender does not change.

Eines der Mädchen in dieser Gruppe ist meine Tochter. – One of the girls in this group is my daughter.

Ich will einen der Tische kaufen. – I want to buy one of (these) tables.

It should be noted that the non-op. art. used only with noun. in the singular. If we are talking about unknown items or items mentioned for the first time, plural, art. not installed. In such cases, the noun is said to have a zero article.

Compare: 1. a) Da gibt es ein Auto. - There's a car there.

b) Da gibt es Autos. - There are cars there.

2. a) Ich brauche einen neuen Fahrrad. - I need a new bike.

b) Wir brauchen neue Fahrräder. – We need new bicycles.

3. a) Wir machen eine neue Übung. – We are doing a new exercise

b) Wir machen neue Übungen. – We are doing new exercises.

I.G. Knyazeva, German language teacher, MBOU Secondary School No. 15 Art. Rogovskaya

Article in German

An article is a function word that comes before a noun. The article in German is declined and indicates to us the gender, number and case of the noun. In German there are definite articles die, der, das, die(plural) and indefinite ein, eine, ein. The indefinite article does not exist in the plural.

Declension of the definite and indefinite articles in German

The possessive pronouns mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer and the negative pronoun are declined as the indefinite article kein in singular parts, used instead of the article.
Demonstrative pronouns are inflected like the definite article. dieser- this, diese - this, these, diesels - This ; jenes - That, jener- That, jene - ta, those ; solcher- such, solche - such, such, solches - such an interrogative pronoun welcher- Which? welche - which? which? welches - which?

Using the indefinite article in German

Use of the definite article in German

Using the zero article in German

Instructions

Use the definite article in the following cases:

When the subject being spoken about is known to both the speaker and the listener. For example: Das Kind ist gleich eingeschlafen;
- when the subject is the only possible one in a given situation or of its kind, or is somehow highlighted (defined in a sentence). For example: Die Erde bewegt sich um die Sonne;
- with the names of rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, mountains, streets, for example: der Stille Ozean;
- collective meaning, for example: Die Gesellschaft hat sich geändert.

Indefinite article should be used in cases where:

An item from a series of similar ones. For example: Hast du ein Worterbuch?;
- noun is nominal part nominal predicate. For example: Zeuthen ist eine Stadt in Deutschland;
- the noun acts as a direct object after haben (to have) and es gibt (there is, there is). For example: Es gibt hier ein Geschenk.

There is no article (zero article) when:

The noun is plural and denotes an indefinite number of objects. For example: Hast du weichen Spielzeuge?;
- a noun denotes material or substance. For example: Ich bevorzuge Kaffee;
- a noun denotes a property, quality or state. For example: Sie haben Hunger;
- a noun is a nominal part of a compound nominal predicate and expresses professional, social and other similar affiliation. For example: Ich bin Artz;
- a noun is a nominal part of a compound nominal predicate and denotes a temporary. For example: Es ist Freitag;
- the noun follows the preposition ohne (without) or the conjunction als (as, as). For example: Mein Kind liest ohne Hilfe.

Sources:

• definite article in German
• Rules for determining the article in German

Articles exist in many European and Asian languages. They are definite and indefinite. Every student of Romance and Germanic languages ​​faces the need to distinguish between them. These short words can appear before or after nouns, either singular or plural. To correctly convey the meaning of a foreign phrase, you need to know how one article differs from another and when which one is used.

You will need

• - text in a foreign language.

Instructions

Having received the task of translating a piece of text or composing a story yourself, remember what articles it contains. There are two of them, a and the. The article a is called definite, the - indefinite. The secret to using them lies in the . If you are talking about something that has already been mentioned before, use the article a. The same applies to situations if, in a conversation with an interlocutor, you name a very specific and, moreover, known to you object. In opposite situations, put the.

Try to answer the question about what kind of flower or pencil we are talking about. If the words “some”, “any”, “unknown” can be placed in front of a noun, then we are talking about “an object in general”. In this case, the indefinite article is used. Definite is used if an object can be designated as “this”, “that same”, “the one that I showed you”, “the one that we have already talked about”.

In a number of languages, articles are used in both singular and number. In Romance languages ​​they also have a gender category. But they are distinguished in the same way as in. The Spanish un, una, unos and unas come from the Latin numeral for one. Before nouns you can put the words “one of”, “some”, “some” in the appropriate gender. If you see the words el, la, los and las before nouns, this indicates that this item or items have already been discussed before or the interlocutors know about them.

In some languages, it is the articles that make it possible to distinguish, which often sound exactly the same and their exact meaning can only be established by belonging to a certain gender. In language, singular and plural nouns sometimes sound exactly the same. The number can be determined by a short word that comes before the main one. Le and les sound different. Listen carefully to foreign speech and catch the sound that ends this small but important part of speech.

You may not be understood if you start using nouns without articles. In many cases, only this modest part of speech allows us to determine what is being said about the noun. Nothing like that before adjectives and verbs. It happens that verbs look and sound exactly the same as nouns. The absence of an article can greatly change the meaning of a phrase, often even to the exact opposite. Therefore, before you say a phrase, remember whether you have ever talked about this subject before or not.

Look at the entire offer. If there are any details about a given object, there may be a definite article before it. For example, if you need to translate the phrase “there is a tree in front of the house,” then in both cases you put a or, say, un. It can be said about a house that it is located on such and such a street and there is just a tree growing in front of it. In this case, the article before the word “house” in almost any Western European language will be definite. The tree remains unknown, somehow, “a tree in general.” If, for example, it has a broken top or a forked trunk, the situation changes. This is a tree you already know, unlike any other. That's why el or the comes before it.

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