| 6.1 Articles in Basic Form (Nominative) |
Now you can ask why there is the limitation of "basic form", why not just giving them to you. Well, the answer is simple: there is more than one form (we discussed this issue in connection with the pronouns (chapter 4.2). The German language does have the forms of direct (Accusative), indirect object (Dative) and the possessive object (Genitive) which you'll find is also important in relation to the articles.
Later on we will have a look at the complete German declination. For now the basic forms in masculine, feminine and neutral version should be enough. Especially as there are only a few rules and a lot of not very logic definitions. The tomato is feminine (die Tomate), the baby is neutral (das Baby) and a girl is neutral (das Mädchen), too. But again there is only one way to get behind the "secrets of German grammar" - step by step.
| singular | ||||
masculine  |
der | Mann Hut Kühlschrank |
the | man hat refridgerator |
| feminine |
die | Frau Tasse Straße |
the | woman cup street |
| neutral |
das | Kind Auto Fenster |
the | child car window |
| plural | ||||
| masculine |
die | Männer Hüte Kühlschränke |
the | men hats refridgerator |
| feminine |
die | Frauen Tassen Straßen |
the | women cups streets |
| neutral |
die | Kinder Autos Fenster |
the | children cars windows |
Ok, here you see that there are three definite articles
der (masculine), die
(feminine), das (neutral).
| Mann |
man | Männer | men |
| Frau |
woman | Frauen | women |
| Kind |
child | Kinder | children |
| Kühlschrank |
refridgerator | Kühlschränke | refridgerators |
| Straße |
street | Straßen | streets |
| Tasse |
cup | Tassen | cups |
The way the plural is formed seems to be quite irregular.
We'll have a look at it a bit later in formation of
plural.
Now we already can form little phrases.
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