A1 · Articles
The definite article
der, die, das and their sixteen cells
Six distinct words doing sixteen jobs — fewer forms than the table suggests.
At a glance
- Remember
- Six words, sixteen cells. Only the masculine changes in all four.
- Form
- der / die / das — dienominative
- Signal words
- der
- die
- das
- den
- dem
- des
- im
- am
- zum
- zur
- Trap
- Wrong:Ich gehe zu der Arzt.Right:Ich gehe zum Arzt.
Your turn
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The form
The forms side by side
All the forms in one overview: first what each one stands for, then the form in German, so you can compare them directly.
| 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 |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
The article carries the gender, the number and the case; the noun itself changes only in the genitive and the dative plural (weak masculine nouns aside).
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.
Example sentences
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.
8 more example sentences
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.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
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.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
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.
A closer look
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.
Exceptions and special cases2
Exception
When the noun is a country with an article — die Schweiz, die Türkei, der Iran, die USA
then the article stays and in replaces nach.
Wir fahren in die Schweiz.We are going to Switzerland.
Why? Most country names are neuter and articleless; a small group is not, and they behave like ordinary nouns.
Exception
When a preposition and an article meet
then they usually contract: im, am, zum, zur, vom, beim, ins, ans, aufs.
Wir gehen ins Kino.We are going to the cinema.
Why? The combinations are so frequent that they fused, and the fused form is now the neutral one.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
dieser takes the same endings
Dieser (this), jeder (every), welcher (which) and mancher (some) all take exactly the endings of der: diesen, diesem, dieses. 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.
Worth knowing
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.
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