Nouns

Nouns

Nomen

Nouns in German are always written capitalized. They can have one of the three genders: masculine (Maskulinum), feminine (Femininum) or neuter (Neutrum). There are also nouns that exist only in plural form e.g. die Eltern (parents). Apart from that nouns are inflected for case where German has four cases: nominative (Nominativ), genitive (Genitiv), dative (Dativ) and accusative (Akkusativ).

Construction and applications of nouns

We always write nouns with capital letters
  • Translation
  • car
  • Translation
  • woman
  • Translation
  • weather
  • Translation
  • books
The gender of the noun

The article defines the gender. The article can be definite (der Mann 👉 the man), indefinite (ein Mann 👉 a man) or it can be the zero article (Männer 👉 men).

  • Translation
  • the woman / a woman
  • Translation
  • the man / a man
  • Translation
  • the kid / a kid
  • Translation
  • the girl / a girl
  • Explanation
  • (!) Watch out, the grammatical gender doesn't always match the gender semantically.
Nouns without singular

There are also nouns in German that have only the plural form. In that case the definite article is die, and there is no indefinite article.

  • Translation
  • the parents / parents
  • Translation
  • the vacation / vacation
Declension of the noun for case

Nouns are inflected for the cases (most often only the article is inflected but sometimes the noun too).

Maskulinum Femininum Neutrum Plural
Nominativ der Mann/ein Mann die Frau/eine Frau das Kind/ein Kind die Eltern/Eltern
Genitiv des Mannes/eines Mannes der Frau/einer Frau des Kindes/eines Kindes der Eltern/Eltern
Dativ dem Mann/einem Mann der Frau/einer Frau dem Kind/einem Kind den Eltern/Eltern
Akkusativ den Mann/einen Mann die Frau/eine Frau das Kind/ein Kind die Eltern/Eltern
Plural
Plural is usually created by adding to the noun one of the following suffixes: -n/-en, -e, -s, -r/-er
  • Translation
  • the school / the schools
  • Translation
  • the woman / the women
  • Translation
  • the car / the cars
  • Translation
  • the tax / the taxes
  • Translation
  • the kid / the kids
Sometimes no suffix is added
  • Translation
  • the girl / the girls
Oftentimes an (Umlaut) has to be added to plural monosyllabic nouns
  • Translation
  • the book / the books
  • Translation
  • the man / the men

Exceptions

  • Translation
  • the bus / the buses
Nominalization

Nominalization is the creation of nouns from verbs. For each verb a corresponding noun can be created, which has the meaning "doing what the verb specifies" e.g. bauen (to build) 👉 das Bauen (building), lesen (to read) 👉 das Lesen (reading). Then the noun is simply an infinitive that always has the article das.

  • Translation
  • I need silence while reading.
  • Translation
  • Helping others makes us happier.
  • Translation
  • Thanks for the bringing. (or for bringing sth)

Exceptions and special cases

The base of the noun changes

Sometimes something has to be removed from the noun's stem before building the plural. It also happens that the plural is simply irregular.

  • Translation
  • a subjects 👉 subjects
  • Explanation
  • The letter a has to be removed from Thema before adding the -en suffix.
  • Translation
  • museum 👉 museums