Definite articles in German table. Definite article

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.

The indefinite article should be used in cases where:

An item from a series of similar ones. For example: Hast du ein Worterbuch?;
- the noun is the nominal part of the 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 establish them exact value It is possible only by belonging to a certain genus. In language, singular and plural nouns sometimes sound exactly the same. The number can be determined a short word, which 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 growing 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.

Video on the topic

Oh, this German language - it contains such a phenomenon as articles. Articles in German are of the following types: definite, indefinite, negative, zero. Definite articles are die, das, der– each of which is responsible for a specific genus. The indefinite article is ein. Negative – kein.

How does the definite article in German differ from the indefinite article?

The indefinite article is placed before nouns, which have not yet been discussed - and which is mentioned for the first time. (Except for special cases, which you will read about below).

Das ist eine Katze. – This is a cat.

The definite article is used before a word that has already been discussed. Here we are again about the cat, but we met her in the last sentence, which means:

Die Katze ist schwarz. – This cat is black.

The indefinite article is also used if the speaker does not know whether there is any food in this place at all. given time item he needs: Wo ist hier ein Telefon?-Where is the phone here?

Definite article used when you are asking for something specific, describing something specific, mentioning something specific.

Here's a comparison:

Gib mir ein Messer.

Gib mir das Messer.

What is the difference between these two examples? Both of them can be translated as: give me the knife. Only in the first option, the person asking doesn’t care what kind of knife they give him - any one will suit him. But in the second case: the person asking has in mind a specific knife that he sees - and maybe even points at.

Articles in German can also be inflected according to cases and numbers. Here's the definite article:

I will not tell you which words are used in which of the listed genders within the framework of this note. Wait for the next article about the gender of German nouns.

And here is the indefinite article:

The negative article is the same indefinite article, but with the letter k at the beginning. That's why I didn't want to draw a separate table... BUT! There is a very important difference between them. Therefore, catch the third sign:

Notice the main difference? That's right - the plural with a negative article is used!

By the way, read about negation in German.

Tables with declination of articles need to be known by heart - this the beginning began, which will be very useful in the future. In principle, the endings of all the listed articles are similar - and there is nothing wrong with them. If you are really depressed and too lazy to learn this, try dropping the genetive - the last line in each tablet - you can make up for it later, but at first you can do without it.

And one more hint: a woman in dative and genitive turns into a man!

There are a few more rules: when it is necessary to use the definite article, and in which cases - the indefinite article. Sometimes the article is completely absent... These are the cases we will now consider.

The definite article in German

Definite article in German it is usually placed before:

• Famous buildings: das Brandenburger Tor – Brandenburg Gate der Eiffelturm – Eiffel Tower.
• one of a kind concepts : die Sonne- Sun, die Erde – Earth
• names of some countries: der Iraq, die USA
• geographical names :die Alpen– Alps, der Rhein– Rain
• names of organizations: das Finanzamt– financial department
• historical eras and events: die deutsche Wiedervereinigung – German reunification
• titles: der Papst- Pope, die Queen- queen
• adjectives in superlatives: der beste Schüler– best student

Indefinite article put:

• after the verbs haben, brauchen and the phrase es gibt: Hast du eine Schwester? – Do you have a sister?
• when comparing: Sie spricht Deutsch wie eine Deutsche.– She speaks German like a German.
• in designs: so ein, ein solcher, solch ein.

Zero article

The article is absent in the following cases:

• before nouns denoting material: aus Gold- made of gold, aus Wolle- made of wool
• before the names of languages: Deutsch- German, Italienisch – Italian
• before the names of most countries, names of cities and continents: Germany, Cologne, Africa
• when contacting: Kinder!!!– Deeeeti!!! Freunde!!!- Friends!!!
• in the names of religious holidays: Ostern- Easter, Weihnachten- Christmas.
• in stable combinations and proverbs: Übung macht den Meister– Practice makes perfect, zu Fuß- on foot
• often when listing: Neue Wohnhäuser, Schulen, Krankenhäuser wird gebaut. – New houses, schools, hospitals are being built.
• before uncountable nouns: Liebe- Love, Luft- air
• before proper names (although in some regions they really like to give human names definite articles): Guten Tag, Frau Müller!- Good afternoon, Frau Müller!
• before professions and nationalities in the following phrases: Sie ist Friseurin.- She is a hairdresser. Er ist Franzose. - He is French.

Articles in German have important grammatical functions. They express gender, number, case and the category of definiteness and indeterminacy of the noun they precede.

Types of articles

German language articles divides in three categories: singular der or ein- For masculine, das or ein– for average, die or eine– for feminine and for plural – article die.

Articles der, das, die – certain And ein, eine – uncertain. The category of certainty says that the subject being discussed is isolated from many similar things and is known to the interlocutors, i.e. contextual or unique.

The indefinite article in German carries novelty information about an object in a given context, introduces interlocutors to a new object that has appeared in the field of communication and is replaced in repeated use by a definite article. For example:

Ich sehe da ein Mädchen. Das Mädchen weint.
I see (some) girl there. She's crying.

It is easy to see what shades of information both articles convey: in the first case, the girl has just appeared in our context, we do not know her yet, she is one of many for us, some kind of girl in other words. In the second sentence we already use definite article in German, because we continue to talk about that girl, the specific girl who is standing there, so in the translation we can easily replace the word “das Mädchen” simply with the word “she”, since it is already clear who we are talking about.

German article table

It is very important to understand the logic when a subject is not yet defined and when it already becomes defined, i.e. acquaintances, in each specific situation, otherwise even misunderstandings may arise in communicating with Germans. You cannot use only definite or indefinite articles, both of them carry their own grammatical and semantic functions and loads in the language system. Therefore, for clarity, below German article table to start with nominative case(who? what?).

Declension of articles in German by case

We use the nominative case when we answer the question “who?”, “what?”, i.e. we call an object, in other words, it itself produces an action, being a subject. If the action is directed at an object, and it acts as the object of this action, then the noun begins to change according to cases. Declension of articles in German is unthinkable without the participation of the article, unlike in Russian, where the very form of the word changes due to the ending or other methods of word formation. Therefore, as “Our Father” you need to know the following tables of declination of articles:

Declension of the definite article

Declension of the indefinite article

* Since the indefinite article ein came from the numeral eins= one, then in the plural ein is inappropriate, but according to a similar pattern the negative is declined kein= none, for plural – keine= none.

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Anyone who is just starting to learn German is faced with the problem of articles. It is difficult for Russian speakers to understand this topic, because in our speech we do not use anything similar to articles in German. In this article, we clearly and simply answer the most common questions among beginners on this topic.

There are several types of articles in German: definite, indefinite and zero. Let's consider each of them in order.

Definite article

There are only four of them:

Der - for masculine nouns (der);

Die - for the feminine gender (di);

Das - for the neuter gender (das);

Die - plural (di).

They are used in the following cases:

1. When we know what we are talking about. If this subject has already been discussed before. For example: der Hund (a certain dog already mentioned).
2. To denote phenomena that are one of a kind, for which there are no analogues in nature (die Erde - Earth).
3. To designate many geographical objects: rivers, cities, mountains, seas, oceans, streets and so on (die Alpen - Alps).
4. If our noun is preceded by (der dritte Mann - the third person), or an adjective (der schnellste Mann - the fastest person).

Indefinite article

Ein - masculine and neuter gender (ain);

Eine - feminine gender (aine).

For plural in in this case there is no article.

In German it is used in the following cases:

1. When we talk about objects unfamiliar to us (ein Hund is some kind of dog that we hear about for the first time).
2. After the phrase “es gibt” (literally “there is”), for simplicity, we can draw an analogy with the English “there is” (Es gibt einen Weg - there is a road here).
3. For designations of species or class (Der Löwe ist ein Raubtier - lion - a predatory animal).
4. With the verbs Haben (to have) and Brauchen (to need). For example: “Ich habe eine Arbeit” - I have a job.

Zero article

Not all articles actually exist in the German language. There is such a thing as essentially no article at all. So, we don't write anything before a noun if:

1. It denotes a profession or type of activity (Sie ist Ärztin - she is a doctor).
2. In front of many proper names(London ist die Hauptstadt von Großbritannien - London is the capital of Great Britain).
3. To denote the plural (Hier wohnen Menschen - people live here).
4. When designating any chemical substance or material (aus Gold - made of gold).

Almost always in Russian and the corresponding articles in German differ from each other. For example, if our “girl” is feminine, then in German it is neuter – “das Mädchen”. That is, like a “girl”. There is a set of endings that can be used to make it easier to determine the gender of a noun, but for the most part there is only one way out - remember.

Another difficulty is the declension of articles in German. Just as in Russian we don’t say: “I see a girl,” so in German. Each article is declined according to its case. The task is made easier by the fact that there are only four cases: Nominativ (nominative), Genetiv (genitive), Dativ (dative) and Akkusativ (like the accusative). You just need to remember the declination. For your convenience, we provide the table below.

As for indefinite articles, they are declined according to the same principle. For example, the masculine article ein in Akk will be einen, simply adding -en to it. This happens with all other articles.

An article in German is a special part of speech that accompanies a noun. For many people starting to learn German, a very important part of speech - the article - is incomprehensible. There is no analogue in Russian for this part of speech. But in order to understand at least a little the importance of articles in the German language, you first need to understand why they are needed and what function they play.

In Russian we say: dogs A, dogs at, from dogs Ouch and so on.

In German, we can say that the role of our ending is played by the article. It shows the gender, case and number of the noun.

For example:

These are dogs A. - Das ist ein Hund.
I see dogs at- Ich sehe einen Hund.
He goes for a walk With dogs Ouch. - Er geht mit dem Hund spazieren.

As you may have noticed, endings do not change in German. Articles are used instead of endings. German article located directly before a noun. If there is a definition before the noun, the article is placed before the definition.

Das ist ein interessantes Buch. - This is an interesting book.

What articles are there in German?

There are 4 types of articles in German:

indefinite article

definite article

zero article

negative article

Table of declination of the definite and indefinite article

There are four cases (Kasus) in German:

Nominative (nominative) wer? was? - Who? What?

Akkusativ (accusative) wen? was? - whom? What?

Dativ (dative) wem? welcher Sache? - to whom? what?

Genitiv (genitive) wessen? - whom? what?

In this table you see the forms of the definite and indefinite article for the masculine, neuter, feminine and plural. Please note that there is no indefinite article in the plural. The definite article in the plural is the same for all genders - DIE.

All nouns in German are writtencapitalized And used withuncertain or definitearticle. Sometimes the article is not used.

In German, the article not only gives information about the definiteness/indeterminacy of the noun, but also indicates the gender, number and case of the noun, bowing .

When to use which article?

On our website there is an opportunity pronunciation there is any German text. To do this simply highlight German text or a word anywhere on our site And click the "Play" button at the bottom right(white triangle in black circle). You will then hear the text spoken in German.

Indefinite article has the following forms:

ein- for the masculine singular - ein Hund (dog)
ein- for the neuter singular - ein Loch (hole)
eine- for the feminine singular - eine Maus (mouse)

But don't forget that these articles are inflected. If you forgot, look again at the article declination table.

In the plural, designations for unspecified persons or objects are used without an article.

Indefinite article ein or eine used

• with nouns, which we call for the first time:

Möchten Sie eine Banana? - Would you like ( one) banana?

Das ist ein Buch. - This is a book.
Das Buch ist sehr interessant. - This book is very interesting.

• after the verb haben if the noun is in the accusative case.

Ich habe einen Hund und eine Katze. -
I have ( one) dog and ( one) cat.

• after a speech turn es gibt(there is, there is)

In meiner Stadt gibt es einen Schönen Park und ein Theater. -
In my city there is (is available) ( one) beautiful park and ( one) theater.

• when there is a comparison and the conjunction wie (like) is used:

Sie singt wie ein Vogel. - She sings like a bird.

Definite article has the following forms:

der- for the masculine singular - der Hund (dog)
das- for the neuter singular - das Loch (hole)
die- for feminine singular - die Maus (mouse)
die- for the plural - die Hunde (dogs)

Definite article der, die or das used

• with nouns that we know, which we are not talking about for the first time.

Mmm, die Banane ist le cker. - Mmm, ( this) banana is delicious.

Das ist ein Buch. - This is a book.
Das Buch ist sehr interessant. - This book is very interesting.

• when talking about a subject, the only possible in this situation:

Ist der Director schon da? - Is the director already here?

Mein Kind kommt bald aus der Schule. - My child will come home from school soon.

Director at the company one, and the school the child goes to, too one.

• when talking about the only subject in its own way:

a) names of celestial bodies:

die Sonne - sun
der Mond - moon, month
die Erde - Earth
die Venus - Venus
der Merkur - Mercury, etc.;

b) names of countries of the world, seasons, months and days of the week:

der Norden - north
der Sommer - summer
der Januar - January
der Montag - Monday, etc.;

In combination Anfang, Ende, Mitte The article is not used with the name of the month:

Anfang Januar fahren wir ins Gebirge. - At the beginning of January we are going to the mountains.

c) names of oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, for example:

der Stille Ozean - Pacific Ocean
das Schwarze Meer - Black Sea
der Don - Don
der Ladoga-See - Lake Ladoga;

d) names of streets, squares, avenues:

der Newski-Prospekt
der Roßplatz
die Käthe-Kolwitz-Straße, etc.;

e) names of mountains, winds, deserts:

der Ural - Ural
der Nordost - north-east
die Sahara - Sugar, etc.;

• with a superlative adjective or ordinal number:

die klügste Antwort - the smartest answer
der erste Schnee - first snow;

Use zero article You just have to memorize it!

• The article is missing when uncountable nouns And abstract concepts are something that cannot be touched or seen.

For example: Zeit- time, Lust- wish, Glück- happiness, Hunger- hunger and similar words.

It’s true, it’s impossible to calculate!

Ich habe Zeit- I have time.
Ich habe Hunger- I'm hungry.

Also used without an article

• professions :

Ich bin Arzt- I am a doctor.
Meine Freundin ist Informatikerin. - My friend is a computer scientist.
Er ist Student. - He's a student.

nationality

Ich bin Russin. - I'm Russian.
Sie ist Spanierin. - She's Spanish.
Sie sind Chinese. - They are Chinese.

• religious affiliations

Ich bin Catholic. - I am Catholic.
Seid Ihr Buddhisten? -Are you Buddhists?
Sie sind Christen. - They are Christians.

• names of cities, countries and continents:

Ich komme aus Germany. - I'm from Germany.
In einem Monat fahre ich nach Kiev. - In a month I will go to Kyiv.

Exceptions: die Schweiz (Switzerland), die Türkei (Turkey), die USA (USA), der Iran (Iran), die Niederlande (Netherlands) and others

materials and substances:

das Haus aus Holz- house made of wood
die Tasche aus Leder- leather bag
Trinken Sie Kaffee germ? - Do you like coffee?

diseases:

Ich habe Grippe. - I have the flu.
Er hat Fieber. - He has a fever.

plural, if a singular noun is used with an indefinite article (the absence of an article indicates an indefinite set of named objects):

Da steht ein Haus. - Here is the house.
Da stehen Hauser. - Here are the houses.

We strongly recommend that you learn German nouns immediately with articles, since articles play an important role in the correct construction of sentences. For example, learn the word “lamp” not as “Lampe”, but as “die Lampe”.

In addition to the definite and indefinite articles, the German language also has a number of pronouns that carry information about the gender, number and case of the noun. This demonstrative pronouns(dieser - this, jener - that, etc.), possessive pronouns (mein - mine, dein - yours, etc.) and a negative pronoun (negative article) kein. Such pronouns are used instead of the article and are declined as a definite or indefinite article.

Demonstrative pronouns are also declined like the definite article. dieser - this, jener - that, solcher - such is the interrogative pronoun