German Nouns Overview
Nouns. They seem so deceptively simple. You learn table, chair, man, woman, ad infinitum with all the basics. Plug them into sentences. BOOM. Done.
WOW, German nouns are pretty tricky!
For example, what is with all those der, die, das everywhere? Turns out that features of German nouns impact other words in a sentence in some complicated, interrelated ways (that we don’t deal with in English).
You’ve got questions. I’ve got answers! Read through my guides on German nouns (I recommend the particular order you’ll see below).
In no time, you’ll understand German noun gender, plurals, cases, articles, declensions, and more!
Finally understand hard-to-grasp German grammar concepts.
Der Die Das
You’ve probably been coming across the words der die das as you’ve been learning some basic nouns such as der Mann, die Frau, das Kind.
The skinny on der, die, das is that they are 3 different ways to say ‘the’ in German (heads up: there are 3 additional ways, too: den, dem, and des). So, those phrases mean simply the man, the woman, the child.
This guide to der die das (and the nominative case) will teach you how to know when to use which version of ‘the’, why you learn nouns with these ‘the’s in front of them, and a smarter way to commit the various German ‘the’s to memory.
Gender
When we talk about a noun, there are almost always other words in front of the noun that come along for the ride. For example, a tall tree, this small house, the fluffy bunny, many colorful M&Ms.
In German, how exactly you say those words in front of the nouns changes based — for one thing — on the gender of the noun. WHOA.
But that’s why German noun gender is so crucial. Ultimately, you can say scarcely anything beyond ja or nein without needing to know noun gender!
Fortunately, there are tips & tricks that can make learning noun gender MUCH easier … and you probably aren’t hearing about these German noun gender shortcuts anywhere else!
Plurals
After you’ve got a handle on German Noun Gender, it’s time to tackle German Noun Plurals! Dependent on how you categorize things, there are between 5-9 different ways to form plurals in German.
Yikes. That sounds scary.
Never fear! We can simplify German noun plurals such that you’re choosing between 2 main options (with another 3 playing side gigs). It’s actually fairly straightforward.
As with German noun gender, figuring out German noun plurals involves learning various patterns (and they are related to the patterns of German noun gender, so you’re building on prior knowledge — nice!).
So, don’t worry about needing to memorize thousands of isolated noun plurals. Learn a few German noun plurals shortcuts that you can apply across the board (with few exceptions).
Plurals, Demystified!
Case
You’ve got the German noun gender & noun plurals guides under your belt. Feelin’ pretty good. But ready for a little break. Isn’t there anything about German that’s easier than English?
Nope, not really. And sorry … we’ve just barely gotten started!
NOW you are ready to learn why something like German noun gender even matters in the first place (I mean, seriously, why bother with noun gender? English proves you don’t need it, right?).
Well, all nouns play particular roles in a given sentence. In German, there are four types of roles and they are the 4 German cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive).
German nouns must be in one or another case in order for a sentence to make sense. The way that case is indicated is by slight changes to the words (e.g. the, a, big, blue, etc.) that might come in front of the noun (e.g. sky, lake, bees, bears).
Since German nouns have gender as an inseparable feature, the noun’s gender gets mixed up into the case as well. That’s why noun gender is crucial … you can’t properly put German nouns into the right cases without taking the gender of the nouns into account!
So, that means that both the gender of the noun AND the role it’s playing in the sentence (i.e. its case) impact exactly how we say the other words that belong in the noun phrase (e.g. the blue sky, a big lake, three buzzing bees, many fuzzy bears, etc.)
And that’s a pretty big deal if you want to say anything beyond hallo!
So, that’s a glimpse into the whys of German Noun Case, but what about more of the whats and the hows? We cover that, too, overview-style in this Guide to German Noun Case. Then, you can read up (in depth) on the individual cases next!
Nominative Case
If you think of cases as being like ‘slots’ in a sentence, those ‘slots’ get filled up with nouns that are playing different roles in the sentence (and therefore relating to the other nouns in the sentence in a particular way).
The nominative ‘slot’ is the first one that usually gets filled up in any sentence. Because the noun that goes into the nominative ‘slot’ is the subject of the sentence.
Whether your subject is a masculine, feminine, neuter or plural noun will influence the details of how you put that whole noun phrase (<– includes small words like the, a, some, few and also adjectives such as small, tall, pretty, etc.) into the ‘nominative slot’.
In other words, the little changes to the words in front of the noun (subject) will specifically reflect 1) the gender of the subject and 2) the fact that it is functioning as the subject in the particular sentence.
Since we have 3 genders (and then the plural, too!), there must be at least 4 different ways to put nouns into the nominative ‘slot’ as subjects of the sentence.
Turns out, there is even a bit more that goes into this discussion, but we cover all things relating to the nominative case here so you’ll be speaking German properly in no time!
Accusative Case
If the nominative case is making sense to you, then it’s time to move on to the accusative case so that you can start to understand/say/write more complex German sentences.
The accusative case is another ‘slot’ in a sentence that gets filled up with any noun playing the role of direct object.
As far as German is concerned, there is an easy principle: once you’ve named your subject, and if there are no other indicators that a different case is needed instead (as an exception), you default to putting the next noun into the accusative case.
This pretty exhaustive guide on the accusative case tells you all the ins-and-outs of how & when exactly to do that!
Dative Case
German learners frequently find themselves very confused about the differences between the accusative & dative cases (<– it’s a distinction rarely relevant in English but vital to German).
The dative case is, of course, another ‘slot’ that we can put a noun into when it needs to play the particular role of the indirect object in a given sentence.
As always, the other words in the noun phrase (e.g. determiners such as a, the, this, some, etc. and adjectives such as windy, sparkly, tough, green) will be slightly changed to indicate the gender (M, F, N, or Pl) & case (dative).
You can learn in this extensive guide to the dative case about all the relevant details about how to know when to use the dative case and then how to make the right changes to the right words so that they’re accurately reflecting ‘hey, I’m in the dative case!’
Bonus: there are fewer differences to keep track of in the dative vs. the nominative & accusative!
Genitive Case
Ooh, this tricky little menace! The genitive is the fourth (and least important) German case or ‘slot’ that we can fill up with a noun/noun phrase.
The genitive is a case that is used to draw a connection between two nouns, which can loosely be thought of as ‘possession’ as in the roof of the house (<– ‘of the house’ is in the genitive and you could think of the house as ‘owning’ its roof).
How to use the genitive case is possibly even the most simple of the four cases (e.g. there are the most similarities / the fewest different options).
But when to use the genitive case is a very emotionally charged topic (<– some argue that the genitive case will completely die out of the German language within the next 100 years tops).
Fortunately, you can get insider-info by reading all the whys and wherefores in this thorough how-to / when-to guide to German genitive case!
Articles
Many German teachers expect you to also become an English grammarian in the process of learning German. There is so much grammarspeak lingo that gets thrown at you, and articles is one of many examples.
Lucky for you, I believe in using the fewest possible grammar terms to teach you what you need to know.
And you don’t need to learn about articles. Nope! If we split hairs (but we won’t), articles are a sub-category of words that are called determiners (<– a truly useful term to know, promise).
In this all-you-need-to-know Guide to German Articles, you can learn all about
- which words are traditionally referred to as articles
- why to use the term determiner instead
- what determiners are & how to use them in a sentence
(hint: they communicate the gender & case of the nouns that follow them, so determiners are really Hot Grammar Stuff in German).
Definite & Indefinite Articles
On a very basic level, definite articles are the different ways (<– there are 6) of saying ‘the’ in German and indefinite articles are the (also 6) different ways to say ‘a/an’ in German.
However, there is no functional reason whatsoever to bother yourself with this terminology!
In this comprehensive guide to Definite & Indefinite German Articles, you’ll learn about the better way to categorize the words ‘the’ and ‘a’ that plays together with how you correctly use them in a sentence (without needing to memorize separate charts for ‘the’ and ‘a’).
If you like to learn smarter, not harder, this a guide made for you!
Declensions
Finally! Saved the best for last. Every.Single.Guide. on German nouns is ultimately about declensions. So, I hope you’ve read those others first before you tackle this mountain!
Remember all those slight changes I’ve been referencing? That are made to the words that come in front of nouns? So that the gender & case of the noun is properly signaled?
Sweet. Well, those slight changes are called declensions (<– another grammar term actually worth knowing).
You can’t speak German without using declensions all.the.time. So, this is a topic worth knowing like the back of your hand (and you can, promise).
There are different types of declensions (and then the 5 declensions themselves), 4 declensions patterns, and various rules for when to use which declensions depending on a few factors such as the gender (<– 4 options counting plural) and case (<– another 4 options!) of the noun.
Sounds ridiculous, right?
You betcha! Conventionally, German learners might be expected to study 10 different declensions charts with up to 160 words altogether.
Umm. WHAT?!
I don’t think so. It’d be nice to be fluent in German sooner than 10 years from now.
Well, hooray, because you can use this mind-blowing Declensions Guide to learn German smarter, not harder in much sooner than 10 years!
Turns out that you can learn ALL the declensions with just ONE chart. Doesn’t that sound waaay better than 10? Won’t believe it ‘til you see it? Well, get reading then!
Noun Breakdowns
Below, you'll find a detailed guide on how to use each variant of some of the most popular German nouns. I'll breakdown the gender, plural, case, and MORE for each noun example.
Click to dive in!
