Cases & Declension

Genitive Case

Genitive expresses possession, ownership, or relationship ("whose"). It is the case English usually expresses with 's or with "of."

From A1/A2 to B1

• A1 style: von + Dativ — Er ist der Bruder von Stefan. ("He is the brother of Stefan.")
• A2 style (names only): add -s directly to a proper name, no apostrophe (unlike English 's) — Er ist Stefans Bruder. ("He is Stefan's brother.")
  • Exception: if the name already ends in an s-sound (s, ss/ß, x, z), don't double the sibilant — use an apostrophe with no extra -s instead: Max' Bruder (not Maxs), Jazz' Bruder.
  • This -s/apostrophe shortcut only applies to personal names.
• B1 extension: genitive with common nouns. The same possessive idea now works with ordinary nouns (Bruder, Onkel, Hotel...), not just names, using a full article + ending system. Both styles remain valid alternatives: Pauls Auto ≈ das Auto meines Bruders.

The genitive article + ending table

Gender/Number	Article	Noun ending
Maskulin	des	-s / -es
Neutrum	des	-s / -es
Feminin	der	(none)
Plural	der	(none)

Indefinite/possessive genitive articles follow the same masculine/neuter-vs-feminine/plural pattern: eines, eines, einer, einer; meines, deines, seines, ihres, unseres, eures... — always + noun -s/-es for masculine/neuter.

A useful parallel: just as the dative plural adds an extra -n to the noun (Kinder → den Kindern, unless the noun already ends in -n, e.g. Eltern → den Eltern), the genitive masculine/neuter adds -s/-es to the noun. Feminine and plural nouns take no extra noun ending in genitive — only the article (der) signals the case.

Choosing -s vs. -es: the monosyllable/polysyllable rule

Rule of thumb (a teaching heuristic, not 100% exact — pronunciation/exposure is the real long-term guide):

• Monosyllabic masculine/neuter nouns → add -es: Mann → Mannes, Kind → Kindes, Glas → Glases, Land → Landes, Tisch → Tisches.
• Polysyllabic masculine/neuter nouns → add just -s: Vater → Vaters, Onkel → Onkels, Auto → Autos, Lehrer → Lehrers, Telefon → Telefons, Unterricht → Unterrichts.
• Known exception: Film. Despite being monosyllabic, the genitive is Films, not Filmes.
• The -s/-es ending only ever applies to masculine and neuter nouns; feminine and plural take no ending at all.

The "open the sentence with of" technique

To correctly translate an English possessive phrase ("her father's jacket") into German genitive, mentally reopen it with "of" first ("the jacket of her father") — this reveals which noun is the possessor (and therefore takes the genitive ending) before you start building the German sentence.

Worked examples:

• Das ist der Mantel ihres Vaters. → That is her father's jacket. (Vater masc. → ihres Vaters)
• Das Haus deiner Eltern ist schön. → Your parents' house is beautiful. (Eltern plural → deiner Eltern, no noun ending)
• Das Auto eures Onkels ist teuer. → Your uncle's car is expensive. (Onkel masc. → eures Onkels)
• Die Schwester meiner Mutter wohnt in Delhi. → My mother's sister lives in Delhi. (Mutter fem. → meiner Mutter, no ending)
• Das ist das Haus unserer Großeltern. → This is our grandparents' house. (plural → unserer Großeltern)
• Der Name des Buches ist langweilig. → The name of the book is boring. (Buch neuter → des Buches)
• Die Farbe der Tasche ist rot. → The color of the bag is red. (Tasche fem. → der Tasche)
• Die Bewohner des Hauses sehen einen Bildschirm. → The residents of the house see a screen. (Haus neuter, monosyllabic → des Hauses)
• Der Austausch der Informationen findet hier statt. → The exchange of information takes place here. (Informationen plural → der Informationen)

Subject stays the subject. A genitive phrase never changes the grammatical subject of its sentence — it only modifies the noun it attaches to.

• Ich mag die Form des Sofas. → I like the shape of the sofa. The subject is still ich; des Sofas merely modifies die Form (the accusative object of mögen). Drop the genitive (Ich mag die Form) and die Form becomes plain accusative, not genitive.
• The whole genitive phrase (article + possessor noun, e.g. das Haus deiner Eltern) behaves as one inseparable block; the conjugated verb still comes second in the overall sentence, immediately after that block: Das Haus deiner Eltern ist schön.
• Both orders are possible since only verb position is fixed: Ich mag die Form des Sofas. / Die Form des Sofas mag ich.

Genitive prepositions: trotz and wegen

trotz ("despite") and wegen ("because of / due to") are genitive prepositions — like any preposition, they govern only the next noun phrase, not the whole sentence, and they need only one verb per clause.

Preposition	Meaning	Example
trotz	despite	Trotz des Unfalls haben wir den Ausflug genossen. (der Unfall → des Unfalls)
trotz	despite	Trotz der Gefahr fahre ich gerne Ski. (die Gefahr → der Gefahr)
wegen	because of	Wegen des Regens bleibe ich zu Hause. (der Regen → des Regens)
wegen	because of	Wegen der Kälte bleibe ich zu Hause. (die Kälte → der Kälte)
wegen	because of	Wegen des schlechten Wetters gehen wir nicht aus. (das Wetter → des Wetters)

Don't confuse these with the connectors that mean roughly the same thing but work completely differently:

• trotzdem ("despite that") is a connector, joining two full clauses, each with its own verb: Wir hatten einen Unfall. Trotzdem haben wir den Ausflug genossen.
• weil ("because") is also a connector needing two clauses, sending the verb to the end: Ich gehe nicht ins Büro, weil ich krank bin.
• wegen/trotz, by contrast, attach to a single noun phrase (often a nominalized verb, e.g. turning "it rains" into "der Regen") and don't add a second verb or clause.

wegen + personal pronoun → falls back to Dativ. German has no genitive column in its personal pronoun table (only Nominativ/Akkusativ/Dativ exist), so when wegen would need to attach to a pronoun, it borrows the dative form instead:

• Wegen dir habe ich die Prüfung bestanden. → Because of you, I passed the exam. (dir = dative of du)
• Wegen ihm habe ich einen Job bekommen. → Because of him, I got a job.

This dative fallback is for pronouns only — stick to wegen + genitive for nouns on the exam, even though native speakers sometimes use wegen + Dativ with nouns colloquially.

(Adjective endings inside a genitive phrase, e.g. trotz der schlechten Vorbereitung, generally take -en — this is extra detail beyond the B1 syllabus and isn't graded either way.)

N-Deklination (Weak Masculine Nouns)

Some masculine nouns — called schwache maskuline Nomen (weak masculine nouns) — take an extra -n or -en ending whenever they are not in the nominative, i.e. in Akkusativ, Dativ, and Genitiv.

• ✅ Ich bin Pilot. (nominative, correct, no ending change)
• ❌ Ich sehe den Pilot. / Ich gratuliere dem Pilot.
• ✅ Ich sehe den Piloten. / Ich gratuliere dem Piloten.

Two conditions must both be true: the noun must be (1) masculine, and (2) specifically a weak masculine noun — not every masculine noun qualifies.

Genitive interaction: normally genitive adds -s/-es to masculine/neuter nouns, but for weak masculine nouns the N-Deklination ending overrides that — you add -en, not -s, even in the genitive: die ID des Piloten (not des Pilots).

Worked examples

• Im Deutschkurs habe ich einen Studenten kennengelernt. → accusative object → Studenten
• Der Arzt spricht mit einem Patienten. → dative → Patienten
• Sie hat dem Kunden sein Geld zurückgegeben. → dative → Kunden (nominative is der Kunde)
• Der Bruder des Journalisten ist mein Freund. → genitive → Journalisten
• The article is the reliable signal for number/case, since the weak-noun ending alone can look ambiguous: einen Studenten is unambiguously singular accusative because of einen.

Common weak masculine nouns

A strong sub-pattern: masculine nouns ending in -e are very often weak masculine nouns (even though nouns ending in -e are otherwise usually feminine):

der Name, der Kollege, der Kunde, der Junge, der Neffe, der Experte

Other common weak masculine nouns, many ending in -ant, -ent, -oge, -ist, -graf/-graph:

Mensch, Herr, Nachbar, Bauer, Bär, Elefant, Planet, Architekt, Praktikant, Lieferant, Laborant, Präsident, Absolvent, Student, Polizist, Tourist, Biologe, Pädagoge, Automat, Photograph

Nominativ	N-Deklination form (Akk./Dat.)
der Nachbar	den/dem Nachbarn
der Neffe	den/dem Neffen
der Praktikant	den/dem Praktikanten
der Lieferant	den/dem Lieferanten
der Experte	den/dem Experten
der Kollege	den/dem Kollegen
der Kunde	den/dem Kunden
der Photograph	den/dem Photographen
der Automat	den/dem Automaten

Note: die Nichte (niece) — the feminine counterpart to der Neffe — does not take N-Deklination; only the masculine Neffe does. N-Deklination applies to masculine nouns (plus one neuter exception, Herz, below) — never to feminine nouns.

The plural-based heuristic for spotting weak nouns

A practical (non-textbook) heuristic: if a masculine noun's plural is formed by adding -n or -en, that's a strong sign it's a weak masculine noun.

• Plural in -n/-en → likely weak masculine: Jungen, Kunden, Experten, Namen, Löwen, Affen, Menschen, Herren, Nachbarn, Bauern, Bären, Elefanten, Planeten, Architekten, Praktikanten, Laboranten, Präsidenten, Absolventen, Studenten, Polizisten, Touristen, Biologen, Pädagogen, Automaten.
• Contrast with regular ("strong") masculine nouns, whose plural does not end in -n/-en, and which are not weak: Auto → Autos, Kugelschreiber → Kugelschreiber.
• This heuristic isn't a 100%-guaranteed grammar-book rule, but it holds true in the vast majority of cases and is a fast way to recognize a weak noun you haven't memorized yet.

Exceptions: nouns that take BOTH N-Deklination and genitive -s

Normally N-Deklination alone is enough in the genitive (it overrides -s/-es). But six nouns take both the N-ending and an extra genitive -s:

Nominativ	Genitiv
der Name	des Namens
der Wille (will/desire)	des Willens
der Gedanke (thought)	des Gedankens
der Glaube (belief)	des Glaubens
der Buchstabe (letter of the alphabet)	des Buchstabens
der Friede (peace)	des Friedens

das Herz (heart) is the only neuter noun that takes N-Deklination at all. Unlike normal weak nouns, it does not change in the accusative — only in dative and genitive — and in the genitive it takes both the N-ending and the extra -s, like the six nouns above: die Sprache des Herzens ("the language of the heart").

(These six exception nouns plus Herz are explicitly B2.1-level extra knowledge — not tested at B1, but useful to recognize in reading.)

Artikel als Pronomen (Articles Used as Pronouns)

Instead of repeating a noun already mentioned, German can replace it with just an article inflected like a pronoun — using ein(e)s / einer / eine ("one"), welche(r/s) ("some," for an unspecified plural amount), or kein(e)s / keiner / keine ("none").

The endings follow the regular unbestimmter Artikel / possessive pattern (the same endings as mein, dein, sein...), matched to the gender, number, and case of the noun being replaced — not the subject of the sentence and not any other nearby noun. Getting this wrong (matching the ending to the subject instead of the antecedent) is the most common mistake with this pattern.

Examples by case and gender

• Hast du einen Stift? — Ja, ich habe einen. → Do you have a pen? — Yes, I have one. (masc. accusative)
• Hast du Wein? — Ja, ich habe einen. → masc. accusative
• Hast du ein Kind? — Ja, ich habe eins. → neuter accusative
• Ist hier ein Arzt? — Ja, hier ist einer. → masc. nominative (sein takes nominative)
• Hast du eine Wohnung gefunden? — Ja, ich habe eine gefunden. → fem. accusative
• Hast du Kekse? — Ja, ich habe welche. / Nein, ich habe keine. → plural ("some" / "none")
• Bist du ein Stadtmensch? — Ich bin keiner. → masc. nominative singular (matches the antecedent Stadtmensch, even though the noun might look plural-ish — the speaker is one person, and sein signals nominative)
• Ich habe noch keins. (replacing das Auto, neuter) — keiner would be wrong here since Auto is neuter, not masculine.
• Gibt es Geschäfte im Dorf? — Ja, es gibt welche. → plural pronoun after es gibt, which is always accusative — a reliable shortcut. (Plain geben without es gibt can be accusative or dative depending on context, since geben is a Wechselverb governed by the PDTA rule.)
• Ich habe ein Haus gekauft. Es ist klein, aber es ist meines. → possessive used the same way (neuter nominative, agreeing with Haus).

Usage caution

This construction works well as a reply to a question that already established the noun in context (spoken dialogue, follow-up sentences). Avoid using it to open a sentence "out of nowhere" in the Schreiben (writing) exam — Ich habe eins gefunden is grammatically fine but meaningless without a noun already established for "eins" to refer back to.

Adjektive als Nomen (Adjectives Used as Nouns)

A construction with no real English equivalent: an adjective can itself function as a noun when the underlying noun is obvious from context and refers to a person or an abstract thing that cannot be physically touched/grasped (the generic stand-ins are Person/Mensch for people and Sache/Ding for abstract things).

Adjektive können auch als Nomen verwendet werden. Sie stehen dann meistens für Personen oder abstrakte Dinge, die man nicht anfassen kann. Sie sind zwar Nomen, aber sie werden wie Adjektive dekliniert. ("Adjectives can also be used as nouns. They then usually stand for people or abstract things one can't touch. They are indeed nouns, but they're declined like adjectives.")

How to form it: drop the now-obvious noun and capitalize the adjective, keeping its adjective ending exactly as it was before the noun was dropped.

• Er ist ein hilfsbereiter Mensch. → Er ist ein Hilfsbereiter. ("He is a helpful one.")
• Sie ist eine intelligente Studentin. → Sie ist eine Intelligente.
• Eine arbeitslose Person sucht Arbeit. → Eine Arbeitslose sucht Arbeit.
• Eine obdachlose Person schläft auf der Straße. → Eine Obdachlose schläft auf der Straße.
• Der alte Mensch braucht unsere Hilfe. → Der Alte braucht unsere Hilfe.
• Sandra hat schon wieder einen neuen Freund. → Sandra hat schon wieder einen Neuen.
• Abstract use: Das Interessante an Deutschland ist, dass... ("The interesting thing about Germany is that...") — works because the underlying idea is "die interessante Sache."
• Also seen in authentic text: Viele Verletzte wurden eingeliefert. ("Many injured [people] were admitted") — Verletzte is itself an adjective-as-noun.

Scope and use: this is primarily a reading comprehension (Lesen) / Sprachbausteine recognition skill, not something to actively produce in Schreiben — recognize a capitalized adjective with no following noun as referring to a person or abstract thing, but you generally won't need to write this construction yourself.

Adjective Ending Tables

Choosing the right adjective ending is a four-step process:

1. Check whether the noun phrase has an article or not — and if so, which kind.
2. Determine the case (Nominativ / Akkusativ / Dativ — Genitiv adjective endings are beyond B1 scope).
3. Determine the gender/number (masculine, neuter, feminine, or plural).
4. Look up the ending in the matching table below.

Table 1 — with definite article (der/das/die/die)

Simplest table: the ending is -e almost everywhere, except dative (all genders) and plural, which are always -en.

Case	Maskulin	Neutrum	Feminin	Plural
Nominativ	-e	-e	-e	-en
Akkusativ	-en	-e	-e	-en
Dativ	-en	-en	-en	-en

Memory hook from class: "plural always -en, dative always -en, Akkusativ maskulin -en, everywhere else -e."

Table 2 — with indefinite article / possessive (ein-, kein-, mein-, dein-, sein-...)

Same endings as the definite-article pattern overall (-er, -es, -e, -en, -em... across cases and genders), except that dative (all genders) and plural are always -en — this is the one rule that matters, since everything else lines up with what you'd expect from the article's own ending.

Case	Maskulin	Neutrum	Feminin	Plural
Nominativ	-er	-es	-e	-en
Akkusativ	-en	-es	-e	-en
Dativ	-en	-en	-en	-en

Table 3 — with no article at all

The adjective itself takes over the article's job and carries the full set of regular definite-article-like endings, with no special -en override for dative/plural.

Case	Maskulin	Neutrum	Feminin	Plural
Nominativ	-er	-es	-e	-e
Akkusativ	-en	-es	-e	-e
Dativ	-em	-em	-er	-en

The rule distinguishing Tables 2 and 3

Tables 2 and 3 are identical everywhere except dative and plural: Table 2 (indefinite article/possessive present) forces -en in the dative and plural; Table 3 (no article at all) uses the regular full pattern there instead (-em/-em/-er for dative singular, -e for plural nominative/accusative, -en only for dative plural). Table 1 (definite article) is the odd one out by being mostly -e, switching to -en only for dative and plural.

Worked examples:

• Fadi ist Arzt in allgemeinem Krankenhaus. → no article before allgemeinem → Table 3 → dative, neuter → -em.
• Vier Angestellte der Bäckerei sind in Schwierigkeiten. → no article before Angestellte → nominative plural → Table 3 plural nominative → -e (here showing as Angestellte, since nominative/accusative plural in Table 3 is -e, not -en — only dative plural takes -en in Table 3). Note der Bäckerei is a separate genitive phrase ("of the bakery") and does not affect the case of Angestellte itself.

Source Videos

• Video 1 — A2-level genitive recap with names (-s vs. apostrophe).
• Video 9 — B1 genitive with common nouns, article table, "open with of" technique, monosyllable/polysyllable -s/-es rule.
• Video 10 — Genitive wrap-up/drilling, and the genitive prepositions trotz/wegen (including the dative fallback with personal pronouns).
• Video 11 — Genitive drilled through a continuous reading text, plus further trotz vs. wegen sentence-combining practice.
• Video 24 — Full introduction to N-Deklination (weak masculine nouns), including the plural-based identification heuristic.
• Video 25 — N-Deklination exceptions (Name/Wille/Gedanke/Glaube/Buchstabe/Friede and the neuter Herz).
• Video 43 — Artikel als Pronomen (ein(e)s/keins) and Adjektive als Nomen introduced.
• Video 45 — Artikel als Pronomen drilled further (ein-/kein- across cases), and recap of the three adjective-ending tables.