A2 · Articles
Leaving out the article
Ich bin Lehrer. Ich trinke Kaffee.
Jobs, nationalities, materials and abstract nouns often stand bare where English needs a or the.
At a glance
- Remember
- Bare profession, but an adjective brings ein back.
- Form
- Sie ist Ärztin.profession
- Signal words
- sein
- werden
- als
- aus
- ohne
- Trap
- Wrong:Ich bin ein Lehrer.Right:Ich bin Lehrer.
Your turn
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The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in German.
| profession | Sie ist Ärztin. |
| nationality | Er ist Österreicher. |
| material, mass | Das ist aus Holz. |
| abstract, general | Liebe ist kompliziert. |
| indefinite plural | Wir haben Fragen. |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
No article after sein or werden with a profession, nationality or religion.
Er wird Arzt.He is becoming a doctor.
An adjective brings the article back.
Er ist ein guter Arzt.He is a good doctor.
Mass and abstract nouns meant in general stand bare.
Wir brauchen Geduld.We need patience.
The indefinite plural has no article, and its negation is kein in the plural.
Ich habe Fragen. — Ich habe keine Fragen.I have questions. — I have no questions.
Example sentences
Ich bin Studentin.I am a student.
Sie arbeitet als Übersetzerin.She works as a translator.
Der Tisch ist aus Eiche.The table is oak.
Zeit ist Geld.Time is money.
Hast du Kinder?Do you have children?
6 more example sentences
Meine Schwester ist Ingenieurin.My sister is an engineer.
Er ist Deutscher, sie ist Italienerin.He is German, she is Italian.
Wir essen gern Fisch.We like eating fish.
Sie hat Angst vor Hunden.She is afraid of dogs.
Das Haus ist aus Stein.The house is stone.
Ich brauche keine Hilfe.I do not need any help.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The wrong version is not meaningless — it is heard as singling one out of a group, "I am one of the teachers here". As a plain answer to "what do you do" it sounds odd in exactly the way that gets noticed and never corrected. The moment an adjective joins in, the article is right again: Ich bin ein schlechter Lehrer is correct, because the adjective turns the profession into a description.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
German drops the article in a small set of situations, and the largest of them is the one English learners meet on day one: naming a profession, a nationality or a religion after sein or werden. Ich bin Lehrer, not "ein Lehrer".
The second group is mass nouns used in an unlimited sense. Ich trinke Kaffee is coffee in general; Ich trinke den Kaffee is that particular cup. English marks the first case by leaving the article out too, which makes this group easy. Abstract nouns can stand bare in the same way in general statements and sayings — Zeit ist Geld — but German reaches for the article with them far more often than English does (die Zeit vergeht), so a bare abstract noun is the exception rather than the rule.
And a plural indefinite has no article at all, because ein has no plural. The singular ein Buch becomes plain Bücher, which is the same as English "books" and needs no learning — until a sentence needs the negative, where keine Bücher reappears.
A closer look
The pattern behind all four groups
A German article does one of two jobs: it points at a particular thing (der) or it introduces one example out of many (ein). A profession after sein does neither — it classifies rather than counts, and there is nothing to point at or single out. Neither does a material, and neither does an abstract noun taken in general.
That is why an adjective changes everything. Ein guter Arzt genuinely does single one out of the set of doctors, so the counting article is back and required. The same happens with a defining relative clause: Er ist der Arzt, der mich behandelt hat.
Exceptions and special cases2
Exception
When a country name has a gender
then it keeps its article: die Schweiz, die Türkei, der Iran, die USA.
Sie fährt in die Schweiz.She is going to Switzerland.
Why? Most country names are neuter and articleless, but a handful are not, and those take the article everywhere.
Exception
When a mass noun is meant as a specific portion
then the definite article returns.
Trink den Kaffee, er wird kalt.Drink the coffee, it is going cold.
Why? The article is what marks "that particular one".
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
als does the same job
Als Lehrer verdient man nicht viel uses als for a role and takes no article either, for the same reason: it classifies. This is also how German says "as a child" — als Kind, never "als ein Kind".
Worth knowing
Meals and instruments
A meal named as the thing being eaten goes bare — Wir essen Abendbrot — although after a preposition it takes the article: nach dem Frühstück. Musical instruments after spielen usually go bare too: Sie spielt Klavier, Er spielt Geige. The version with the article, Sie spielt die Geige, is possible but less usual.
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