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 = childre
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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