Der Genitiv
Cybergerman and Das Online-Deutschstudium, © 1996, 1997, 1998, Nabeel S. Kandah. All Rights Reserved.
Nouns which are in this case express possession of another noun. Some German examples are
- die Gitarre des Mädchens -- the guitar of the girl, or, as is more typical in English, the girl's guitar.
- das Haus meiner Tante -- the house of my aunt or my aunt's house.
the definite article in the Genitive case -- all mean of the
|
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
Plural |
| Nom |
der |
die |
das |
die |
| Acc |
den |
die |
das |
die |
| Dat |
dem |
der |
dem |
den |
| Gen |
des, -(e)s |
der |
des, -(e)s |
der |
The Indefinite article in the Genitive case; all mean of a, except for the plural. Since there is no indefinite article in the plural I have used the possessive adjective mein- as an example. Notice the similarities with definite article.
|
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
Plural |
| Nom |
ein |
eine |
ein |
meine |
| Acc |
einen |
eine |
ein |
meine |
| Dat |
einem |
einer |
einem |
meinen, -n |
| Gen |
eines, -(e)s |
einer |
eines, -(e)s |
meiner |
Other "Ein" Words - they have the same exact endings as the indefinite articles above - are:
- mein - "my"
- dein - "your" (informal, 2nd per, sg)
- sein - "his"
- ihr - "her"
- sein - "its"
- unser - "our"
- euer - "your" (informal, 2nd per, plural)
- Ihr - "your" (formal, 2nd person, sg and plural)
Prepositions that govern the genitive case:
- anstatt - instead of
- wegen - on account of
- trotz - in spite of
- während - during