Article in German. The definite article in German

In German, as in Russian, every noun has a gender. And how is this genus expressed? With the help of 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 - a definite or indefinite article.

Today we will focus on the definite article in detail. So, as you can see from the table:
article der- for the 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 match, we always learn that word together with the article: not just "Tisch", but "der Tisch". Otherwise, you simply cannot build a sentence correctly without knowing the gender of the noun.

Declension of the definite article.

The 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 understood, we learn all new words along 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 keep in mind!

Feminine gender (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- Liberty

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 Facult at- 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 they mean the names of persons)

der admiral - admiral

der Demonstration 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 - mist

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

What is the difference between the definite article in German and the indefinite article?

The indefinite article is placed before nouns that 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. - It's a cat.

The definite article is used before a word that has already been discussed. Here 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 put if the speaker does not know at all whether there is at all in a given place at a given time an object that he needs: Wo ist hier ein Telefon?- Where is the phone?

The definite article is used when you are asking for something specific, describing something specific, mentioning something specific.

Compare here:

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 a knife. Only in the first variant, the one who asks does not care what kind of knife he will be given - any one will suit him. But in the second case: the one who asks has in mind a certain knife that he sees - and maybe even points to it with his finger.

Articles in German can also be declined for cases and numbers. Here's the definite article:

What words are used in which of the listed genders in the framework of this note, I will not tell. Stay tuned for the next article on the gender of German nouns.

Here is the indefinite article:

The negative article is the same indefinite, but with the letter k at the beginning. Therefore, I did not want to draw a separate table ... BUT! There is a very important difference between them. Therefore, catch the third tablet:

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

By the way, read about negation in German.

You need to know the tables with the declension of articles by heart - this is the beginning of time, 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 completely depressed and too lazy to learn this, try to discard the genitive - the last line in each tablet - you can catch up with 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 put a definite, and in what cases - an 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:

• Notable 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
• organization names: das Finanzamt- finance department
• historical epochs and events: die deutsche Wiedervereinigung German reunification
• titles: der Papst- Pope of Rome die Queen- queen
• superlative adjectives: der beste Schüler- best student

Indefinite article put:

• after the verbs haben, brauchen and 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- from wool
• before language names: Deutsch- German, Italianisch- Italian
• before the names of most countries, the names of cities and continents: Germany, Koln, Africa
• when contacting: Kinder!!!- Deeeee!!! 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 listed: 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 are very fond of endowing human names with definite articles): Guten Tag, Frau Müller!- Good afternoon, Frau Müller!
• before professions and nationalities in such phrases: Sie ist Friseurin.- She is a hairdresser. Er ist Franzose. - He is French.

Instruction

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 in its own way, or is somehow highlighted (defined in the 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 when:

An item from a number 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). For example: Es gibt hier ein Geschenk.

The article is absent (zero article) when:

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

Sources:

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

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

You will need

• - text in a foreign language.

Instruction

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

Try to answer the question of which flower or pencil we are talking about. If the words “some”, “some”, “unknown” can be put before a noun, then it is said about “an object in general”. In this case, the indefinite article is used. The definite is used if the object can be designated as “this”, “the same”, “the one that I showed you”, “the one we have already talked about”.

In a number of languages, articles are used both in the singular and in the 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 are derived 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 the subject or subjects 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 the language, singular and plural nouns sometimes sound exactly the same. A short word that comes before the main one allows you to determine the number. Le and les sound different. Listen carefully to foreign speech and catch the sound that ends this small, but such an important part of the speech.

You may not be understood if you start using nouns without articles. In many cases, only this modest part of speech allows you to determine what is being said about the noun. Nothing before adjectives and verbs. Sometimes 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 spoken about this subject before or not.

Look at the whole offer. If there is some detail about the given object, there may be a definite article before it. For example, if you need to translate the phrase “a tree grows in front of the house”, then in both cases a or, say, un is put. It can be said about a house that it is located on such and such a street and just a tree grows 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, some kind of “tree in general”. If, for example, it has a broken top or a forked trunk, the situation changes. This is a tree already known to you, unlike any other. Therefore, it stands before him el or the.

Related videos

Anyone who is just starting to learn German is faced with the problem of articles. It is difficult for a Russian speaker to understand this topic, because in our speech we do not use anything similar to articles in German. In this article, we simply 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 feminine (di);

Das - for the middle gender (das);

Die is plural (di).

They are used in the following cases:

1. When we know what is at stake. If this subject has already been discussed before. For example: der Hund (a certain dog, which has already been mentioned).
2. To denote phenomena that are one of a kind, analogues of which do not exist 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 (ayin);

Eine - feminine (Aine).

There is no article for the plural in this case.

In German, it is used in cases:

1. When we talk about objects unfamiliar to us (ein Hund - 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 species or class designations (Der Löwe ist ein Raubtier - a lion is 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 in German actually exist. There is such a thing as In fact, this is the absence of the article at all. So, we don't write anything before a noun if:

1. It denotes a profession or occupation (Sie ist Ärztin - she is a doctor).
2. Before 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, material (aus Gold - from gold).

Almost always in Russian and the articles corresponding to it in German differ from each other. For example, if our “girl” is feminine, then in German - middle - “das Mädchen”. It means "girl". There is a set of endings with which you can make it easier to determine the gender of a noun, but for the most part there is only one way out - to remember.

Another difficulty is the declension of articles in German. Just as we don't say "I see a girl" in Russian, so it is in German. Each article is inflected for cases. The task is facilitated by the fact that there are only four cases: Nominativ (nominative), Genetiv (genitive), Dativ (dative) and Akkusativ (like accusative). Declension just needs to be remembered. For your convenience, we provide a table below.

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

Before we start talking about the noun in German, let's talk about an equally important part of speech - the article. The article is an official part of speech in German and carries information about the gender, case and number of the noun, and also indicates whether the subject was discussed before or it is mentioned for the first time.

So, in German there are two types of articles: definite (der, die, das) and indefinite (ein, eine, ein). If there is no article, we can talk about the zero article.

Example: Das ist ein Buch. Das Buch ist ziemlich gut. - This is a book. The book is pretty good.

As a rule, articles are not translated into Russian.

Indefinite article

The indefinite article is used when talking about an unfamiliar, indefinite subject mentioned for the first time.

The indefinite article, like the definite article, varies by case. There are four cases in German.
Nominative(N) [nominatif] - answers the questions: wer? (who?) was? (What?)
Genitive(G) [genitif] - wessen? (whose? whose? whose?)
Dative(D) [datif] - wem? (to whom?) wann? (when?) wo? (where?) wie? (How?)
Accusative(Akk) [akuzatif] - wen? was? (who? what?) wohin? (Where?)

The rules for declension of the indefinite article in the singular are given in the table. Plural of the indefinite article No.

As you can see, the declension of the indefinite article of the masculine and neuter gender differs only in one case - the accusative. The declension of the article with feminine nouns is the easiest to remember: the nominative form is the same as the accusative, and the genitive is the same as the dative.

Along with the form, you need to remember the rules for using the indefinite article. So, the indefinite article is used:

1. Before nouns that are mentioned for the first time.

Ich habe eine Wohnung. Auf dem Tisch steht ein Teller. - I have an apartment. There is a plate on the table.

1. Before nouns that are part of a complex nominal predicate (verb + noun). For example:

1. Before a noun in comparison.

Sie ist schön wie eine Rose. She is beautiful like a rose.

1. After the verbs "haben", "brauchen" and after the turnover "es gibt".

Wir haben ein Auto. Ich brauche eine Jacke. Hiergibt es eine Schule. - We have a car. I need a jacket. There is a school here.

1. Before nouns that denote a profession, nationality, rank, if they have a defining word in front of them - for example, an adjective:

Er ist ein fleissiger Student. — He is a diligent student.

Remember! If there is no defining word before a noun denoting a profession, nationality or rank, then the article is NOT used.

Definite article

The definite article refers to something that is already known. The definite article is also inflected for cases.

Please note that in the case of the declension of the definite article, the masculine and neuter forms coincide only in the genitive and dative cases.

The indefinite article is also used according to some rules, which are given below. So, the indefinite article is used:

1. Before a noun that was used before.

Wie haben ein Hund. Der Hund ist gross. - We have a dog. The dog is big.

1. Before a noun that is known or determined by the situation or context.

Die Lehrerin sagt, "Öffnet die Lehrbücher." - The teacher says: "Open your textbooks."

1. Before a noun, after which there is some clarifying information, usually expressed by another noun with a preposition, a noun in the genitive case, or an adverb.

Das ist das Buch meines Bruder. This is my brother's book.
Das Buch auf dem Tisch ist ein Lehrbuch. — The book on the table is a textbook.
Der Mann links ist mein Vater. The man on the left is my father.

1. Superlative adjectives or ordinal numbers.

Das ist die größte Wohnung. - It's a big apartment.

Das ist das erste Haus. - This is the first house.

1. Before nouns that refer to unique objects or phenomena: die Sonne (sun), der Mond (moon), etc.

Die Erde ist rund. - The earth is round.

To check how well you have learned the rule about articles, try the following exercises. Do not be afraid to peek at the tables - we are just learning!

Tasks for the lesson

Exercise 1. Answer the questions.

1. What article is used after the verbs "haben" and "brauchen"?
2. How many articles are there in German?
3. What article is used with nouns denoting unique objects or phenomena?
4. Give the form of the masculine definite article in the dative case.
5. What questions does the genitive case answer?

Exercise 2. Complete the table with the correct form of the article.

Answer 1:

1. Indefinite article.
2. Two: definite and indefinite. (An answer is possible: three, if we take into account the zero article, that is, its absence.)
3. Definite article.
4. Whose? Whose? Whose?