Rocket German: The Genitive

The Cases- The Genitive

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The genitive is the case that shows possession. For example :

Das ist der Hund des Mannes.

That is the dog of the man.

In German the genitive is hardly used in spoken language. More often than not the genitive gets replaced by “von” and the dative.

Das ist der Hund von dem Mann.

That is the dog of the man.

The question you can use for the genitive is whose (“wessen”). Whose dog is it? It’s the man’s dog. Have a look at the table below to see how the articles change in the singular:

Definite articles:

	Nominative	Accusative	Dative	Genitive
Masculine	der	den	dem	des
Feminine	die	die	der	der
Neuter	das	das	dem	des

Indefinite articles:

	Nominative	Accusative	Dative	Genitive
Masculine	ein	einen	einem	eines
Feminine	eine	eine	einer	einer
Neuter	ein	ein	einem	eines

In the Genitive not only the articles change but also the endings of the nouns. Luckily the feminine nouns don’t change, so all you have to remember are the endings for the masculine and neuter nouns. If the noun ends with –en, -el, –er or a vowel you simply add an –s to the noun in the genitive. For example

Nominative		Genitive
German	English	German	English
der Lehrer	the teacher	des Lehrers	of the teacher
ein Auto	a car	eines Autos	of a car

Die Frau des Lehrers ist im Urlaub	The wife of the teacher is on vacation.
*Die Spiegel eines Autos sind kaputt.*	The mirrors of a car are broken

If the noun is short and ends with a consonant you have to add the ending –es. For example:

Nominative		Genitive
German	English	German	English
der Mann	the man	des Mannes	of the man
ein Schloss	a castle	eines Schlosses	of a castle

Das ist das Haus des Mannes.	That is the house of the man.
Das ist der Besitzer der Katze.	That is the owner of the cat.

Zum Beispiel

Das ist das Haus des Mannes.	That is the house of the man.
Das ist der Besitzer der Katze.	That is the owner of the cat.
Das ist das Buch eines Lehrers.	That is the book of a teacher.

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