A1 · Articles
The definite article
der, die, das and their sixteen cells
Six distinct words doing sixteen jobs — fewer forms than the table suggests.
The definite article changes for gender, number and case. Laid out as a table that is sixteen cells, which looks like sixteen things to learn. There are six distinct words in it: der, die, das, den, dem, des.
Two facts cut the work down further. Feminine and neuter are identical in the nominative and the accusative, so half the difficulty vanishes for two of the three genders. And every plural is die in the nominative and accusative, whatever the singular gender was.
What is left to learn properly is the masculine, which is the only gender that changes in all four cases — der, den, dem, des — and the two dative cells that catch people out: the feminine dative der, which looks exactly like the masculine nominative, and the dative plural den, which looks like the masculine accusative.
Die Form
| nominative | der / die / das — die |
| accusative | den / die / das — die |
| dative | dem / der / dem — den |
| genitive | des / der / des — der |
| contractions | im, am, zum, zur, vom, beim, ins, ans |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
The article carries the gender, the number and the case; the noun itself changes only in the genitive and the dative plural.
Ich gebe dem Kind das Buch.I give the child the book.
Feminine and neuter are identical in the nominative and accusative.
Die Tür ist offen. Ich mache die Tür zu.The door is open. I am closing the door.
Every plural takes die, whatever the singular gender was.
der Mann, die Frau, das Kind — die Leutethe man, the woman, the child — the people
German uses the article in several places English leaves it out: with abstract nouns, meals, seasons and parts of the body.
Die Zeit vergeht schnell.Time passes quickly.
Genauer hingesehen
Where German puts an article and English does not
German uses the definite article with abstract nouns (die Zeit, das Leben, die Liebe), with meals (nach dem Frühstück), with seasons and months (im Sommer, im Mai), with streets and squares, and with parts of the body where English uses a possessive: Ich wasche mir die Hände, not "my hands".
It also drops it where English keeps it, most visibly with professions after sein and werden: Sie ist Ärztin. So the two languages disagree in both directions, and neither list is derivable from a rule — but the German list is short and the body-part construction is the one worth learning first, because it comes up daily.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
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the noun is a country with an article — die Schweiz, die Türkei, der Iran, die USA
the article stays and in replaces nach.
Wir fahren in die Schweiz.We are going to Switzerland.
Most country names are neuter and articleless; a small group is not, and they behave like ordinary nouns.
-
a preposition and an article meet
they usually contract: im, am, zum, zur, vom, beim, ins, ans, aufs.
Wir gehen ins Kino.We are going to the cinema.
The combinations are so frequent that they fused, and the fused form is now the neutral one.
Woran man es erkennt
- der
- die
- das
- den
- dem
- des
- im
- am
- zum
- zur
Beispielsätze
Der Zug fährt vom Gleis drei.The train leaves from platform three.
Ich habe der Kollegin Bescheid gesagt.I let the colleague know.
Das Ende des Films war überraschend.The end of the film was surprising.
Wir spielen mit den Kindern.We are playing with the children.
Am Wochenende bleiben wir zu Hause.We are staying at home at the weekend.
Noch 8 Beispielsätze
Der Schlüssel liegt auf dem Tisch.The key is on the table.
Sie hat dem Nachbarn geholfen.She helped the neighbour.
Im Winter wird es früh dunkel.It gets dark early in winter.
Das Auto der Firma steht draußen.The company car is parked outside.
Ich wasche mir die Hände.I am washing my hands.
Die Kinder gehen zur Schule.The children go to school.
Wir sitzen am Fenster.We are sitting by the window.
Das Leben ist kurz.Life is short.
Besonderheiten (2)
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dieser takes the same endings
<z>Dieser</z> (this), <z>jeder</z> (every), <z>welcher</z> (which) and <z>mancher</z> (some) all take exactly the endings of <z>der</z>: <z>diesen, diesem, dieses</z>. Learning the definite article therefore also settles four more words, which is a better return than the sixteen-cell table suggests.
Diesen Film habe ich schon gesehen.I have already seen this film.
-
The article carries the case for the whole phrase
Because the article marks the case, the noun can stay unchanged and an adjective in between can relax. That is the economy behind the whole system: one clear mark per noun phrase. It is also why an article learned wrongly does more damage than a noun learned wrongly — the article is the part that carries the grammar.
Ich kenne den neuen Kollegen.I know the new colleague.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
Two things are wrong and the second explains the first. Zu takes the dative, so it is dem Arzt and not der Arzt; and zu dem contracts to zum as a matter of course. The contractions are not casual speech — they are the normal written form, and using the full one implies you mean that particular doctor rather than the doctor's in general.
Six words, sixteen cells. Only the masculine changes in all four.
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