Articles

Introduction to German Articles

In German, articles (der Artikel) are words that define the gender and number of nouns. Articles can be definite (specific) or indefinite (general). German nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter, and each gender has its own set of articles.

Definite Articles (The)

Definite articles correspond to the English word "the" and are used for specific nouns.

Gender	Singular	Plural
Masculine	der	die
Feminine	die	die
Neuter	das	die

Indefinite Articles (A/An)

Indefinite articles correspond to the English "a" or "an" and are used for general nouns.

Gender	Singular	Plural
Masculine	ein	-
Feminine	eine	-
Neuter	ein	-

Articles and Cases

In German, articles change based on the case of the noun in the sentence. There are four cases in German: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, and Genitive.

Nominative Case (Subject)

Gender	Definite Article	Indefinite Article
Masculine	der	ein
Feminine	die	eine
Neuter	das	ein
Plural	die	-

Accusative Case (Direct Object)

Gender	Definite Article	Indefinite Article
Masculine	den	einen
Feminine	die	eine
Neuter	das	ein
Plural	die	-

Dative Case (Indirect Object)

Gender	Definite Article	Indefinite Article
Masculine	dem	einem
Feminine	der	einer
Neuter	dem	einem
Plural	den	-

Genitive Case (Possession)

Gender	Definite Article	Indefinite Article
Masculine	des	eines
Feminine	der	einer
Neuter	des	eines
Plural	der	-