Genitive case: Nouns and articles

In German there are four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. Nouns (and related words) are declined – that means they change their form according to the case. The four cases indicate the role that the noun has in the sentence.

Nouns with definite article

	Masculine	Feminine	Neutral	Plural
Nominative	der Mann	die Frau	das Kind	die Leute
Accusative	den Mann	die Frau	das Kind	die Leute
Dative	dem Mann	der Frau	dem Kind	den Leuten
Genitive	des Mannes	der Frau	des Kindes	der Leute

Nouns with indefinite article

	Masculine	Feminine	Neutral	Plural
Nominative	ein Mann	eine Frau	ein Kind	Leute
Accusative	einen Mann	eine Frau	ein Kind	Leute
Dative	einem Mann	einer Frau	einem Kind	Leuten
Gentive	eines Mannes	einer Frau	eines Kindes	Leute

An extra -s or -es is added to masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive.

-es is often added to nouns with only one syllable: das Buch – der Titel des Buches/der Titel des Buchs

-es is always added to nouns ending with -s, -ß, x, – z, -tz: das Glas – die Farbe des Glases

-s is added to nouns with more than one syllable: das Hotel – der Name des Hotels

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 3: Genitive after prepositions

Related Pages

When to Use the Genitive

Genitive: Possessive Articles

Prepositions with the Genitive (1)

Prepositions with the Genitive (2)

All Grammar Topics

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