German Emphasizers

An emphasizer is a word which will emphasize or change the meaning of a sentence. Emphasizers are commonly used in the German language. Unfortunately it’s not always possible to translate emphasizers directly. That’s why we tried our best to explain to you the most common German emphasizers in this blog . The most common emphasizers are: aber, denn, doch, ja, mal and schon. Let’s look at them closer.

aber

Aber, meaning “but”, is used to emphasize a statement, making the statement more important or have a bigger impact. For example: Das ist aber nicht meine Tasche. – This bag is really not mine. Das ist aber schade. – That’s a real pity.

denn

Denn, meaning “then” is used to emphasize the meaning of a sentence to bring more clarity. It is also used as a conjunction which we won’t explain in this blog. For example: Wo ist denn die Party? – Where is the party then? Was ist denn passiert? – What’s happened here then?

doch

Doch, which has no direct translation, can be used in three different ways. a) It is used as a positive reply to a negative statement or question. For example: Hast du nicht die Zeitung gelesen? – Doch! – Haven’t you read the newspaper? – Yes, I have! Du kannst nicht fahren – Doch! – You can’t drive – Yes, of course I can! To use doch in these cases, the question or statement must be a negative and the answer must be a positive disagreement with it. b) It is used to make a question out of a statement. For example: Das kannst du doch? – You can do this, can’t you? c) It is used to emphasize a command/imperative. For example: Hilf ihm doch! – Help him then!

mal

Mal is used to emphasize time specific (now) commands or conversations. For example: Hilf mir mal! – Help me now! Schauen Sie mal… – Look here now…

ja

Ja (yes) is used to positively emphasize a statement. For example: Er kann das ja zu Hause machen. – He can do this at home. Das ist ja einfach. – This is easy.

schon

Schon, meaning already, is used in informal statements often to emphasize something that has just happened or about to happen. For example: Wieso macht sie das schon wieder. – Why did she do that again?

Modal Particles

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Adverbs are words that do not change (they are not declined) and they modify the verb’s meaning, an adjective or other adverb.

       Types of adverbs

Temporal adverbs dealing with the day

Adverb	Meaning
vorgestern	the day before yesterday
gestern	yesterday
heute	today
morgen	tomorrow
übermorgen	the day after tomorrow

 

Subjective Temporal Adverbs

Adverb	Meaning
damals	then
früher	earlier
jetzt	now
sofort	immediately
gleich	immediately
bald	soon
später	later
dann	after/then

Temporal adverb gerade

The adverb gerade is used to make the present continuous in German:

Ich lese gerade die Zeitung I am reading the newspaper

Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs of Absolute Frequency

Adverb	Meaning
immer	always
fast immer	almost always
meistens	most of the time
häufig	frequently
oft	often
ab und zu	once in a while
manchmal	sometimes
selten	rarely
fast nie	almost never
nie	never

Adverbs of daily frequency

Adverb	Meaning
morgens	in the morning
nachmittags	in the afternoon
abends	in the evening
nachts	during the night

Adverbs of weekly frecuency

Adverb	Meaning
montags	on Mondays
dienstags	on Tuesdays
mittwochs	on Wednesdays
donnerstags	on Thursdays
freitags	on Fridays
samstags	on Saturdays
sonntags	on Sundays

Other adverbs of frequency

Adverb	Meaning
täglich	daily
wöchentlich	weekly
monatlich	monthly
jährlich	yearly/annually

Forming temporal adverbs by adding an -s

Often, temporal adverbs of frequency are formed from nouns with an “–s” added on. At first, this construction creates a bit of confusion among students of German.

Noun	Adverb
der Abend the evening	abends in the evenings
der Halbtag half a day	halbtags half-day
der Feiertag the holiday	feiertags every holiday

Locative Adverbs

Locative adverbs of place

Adverb	Meaning
vorn / vorne	in front
hinten	behind
links	on the left
rechts	on the right
oben	up
unten	down
innen	inside
außen	outside
hier	here
da	there
dort	there
überall	everywhere
nirgends	nowhere

Locative adverbs with the particles “hin” and “her”. The particles “hin” and “her” denote the direction of movement with respect to the person that is speaking. These particles are used often to make adverbs. Here are some examples so that you understand better:

hinein

If my child and I are outside of the house and I want to tell him to go inside (for example, to do his chores), I’d say:

Geh hinein! Go inside!

heraus

If I am outside of the house and my child is inside and I want him to come out (for example, to cut the grass), I’d say:

Komm heraus! Come outside!

herein

If I am inside the house and my son is playing in the garden and I want him to come in (for example, to eat), I’d say:

Komm herein! Come inside!

hinaus

If my child and I are inside the house and I want to tell him to go out (for example, to play in the garden), I’d say:

Geh hinaus! Go outside!

Locative adverbs that indicate movement

Adverb	Meaning
aufwärts	upwards
abwärts	downwards
vorwärts	forwards
rückwärts	backwards
heimwärts	homeward
westwärts	to the west
bergauf	uphill
bergab	downhill

Construction of locative adverbs by adding an -s

In German, locative adverbs are also formed by adding an “–s” to nouns.

Noun	Locative adverb
das Rechte right	rechts to the right
die Linke left	links to the left

Causal Adverbs

Causal adverbs indicate the reason or origin of an action.

Adverb	Meaning
deshalb	therefore
darum	therefore
deswegen	therefore
folglich	thus/consequently
daher	therefore

Causal adverbs serve as a connection between two sentences, given that they’re Konjunktionaladverbien

Ich möchte in Deutschland leben, deshalb lerne ich gerade Deutsch I would like to live in Germany, therefore I am learning German

It must be emphasized that adverbs occupy a position and by placing them at the beginning of a sentence, they move the subject to the 3rd position. Main Article: Sentence structure

Adverbs of manner

Adverb	Meaning
erstens	firstly
zweitens	secondly
drittens	thirdly
auch	also
ebenfalls	as well
ansonsten	otherwise
außerdem	in addition

Restrictive adverbs

Adverb	Meaning
nur	only
wenigstens	at least
hingegen	on the other hand

Adverbs of quantity

Adverb	Meaning
sehr	very
kaum	hardly

gern / gerne

The adverb “gern” is used often in German and it’s equivalent is “gladly”. The construction “Ich hätte gern…” is very common in German and means “I would like to” and is used to politely order something. gern or gerne are exactly the same but gern is used more often.

Pronoun Adverbs

Pronoun adverbs are the combination of a preposition and a pronoun and are used only to refer to things (not for living things).

Adverbs “da-” + preposition

The adverbs “da-” + preposition are used very often and their translation depends greatly on the context:

Ich habe nicht daran gedacht I didn’t think about that

Adverb	Meaning
daran (or dran)	at it (preposition an)
darauf (or drauf)	on it (preposition auf)
daraus	from it (preposition aus)
dabei	present (preposition bei)
dagegen	against it (preposition gegen)
darin	in it (preposition in)
damit	with it (preposition mit)
darüber	about it (preposition über)
darum	therefore (preposition um)
dazu	additionally (preposition zu)

The prepositions are not exactly the same in German and English and thus the translation is not exact. Check out prepositions to get the best translation in every case.

Adverbs hier + preposition

The adverbs “hier-” + preposition have practically the same meaning as adverbs da + “preposition” though they are used much less often. Their meaning depends greatly on the context.

Adverb	Meaning
hieran	at this (prepoition an)
hierauf	on this (preposition auf)
hieraus	from this (preposition aus)
hierbei	with this or at this (preposition bei)
hiergegen	against this (preposition gegen)
hierin	in this (preposition in)
hiermit	with this (preposition mit)
hierüber	about this (preposition über)
hierzu	for this (preposition zu)

Interrogative adverbs

Main article: Interrogative particles The most important interrogative adverbs are:

Wann(when) Warum(why) Wieso (why)

Wie (how) Wie alt (how old) Wie viel (how much/many) Wie lange (how long) Wie oft (how often) Wie teuer (how expensive) Wie weit (how far)

Wo (where) Woran (whereof) Worauf (where upon) Woraus (what from) Wobei (in which/ whereat) Wogegen (against what) Worin (wherein) Womit (whereby)

Worüber (what about) Worum (what about) Wozu (what for) Wohin (where to) Woher (from where)

Comparative and superlative with adverbs

Some adverbs can make comparatives and superlatives like adjective. This is the case with “bald”, “gern”, “oft”, and “wohl”.

Adverb	Comparative	Superlative
bald soon	eher sooner	am ehesten soonest
gern gladly	lieber preferably	am liebsten most preferably
oft often	öfter more often	am häufigsten most often
wohl well	wohler better	am wohlsten best

Adjectives functioning like adverbs

In many cases, adjectives can function like adverbs:

Das Auto ist schnell [schnell as an adjective] The car is fast

Sie isst schnell [schnell as an adverb] She eats fast

Gestern war ich mit Freunden auf einem Rockkonzert. Rolf und ich kamen später. Unsere Freunde warteten deshalb nicht da auf uns, wowir uns verabredet hatten. Als wir ankamen, standen unsere Freundeganz vorn an der Bühne. Aber dortdrängten sich die Fans, darum blieben Rolf und ich hinten stehen. Als das Konzert anfing, begannen die Fans, laut zu kreischen. Man verstandkaum ein Wort, worüber ich mich ärgerte. Aber die Besucher des Konzerts waren größtenteils junge Mädchen, die bereits beim ersten Songreihenweise umfielen. Somit lichteten sich die Reihen und wir standen baldbei unseren Freunden.

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Capitalization & Punctuation

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Regular declension, n-declension and exceptions There are three genders for nouns in German: Masculine (männlich), feminine (weiblich) and neuter (sächlich).

Capitalized Nouns

One important thing as we get started: All nouns are written with the first letter capitalized. “the house” is written as “das Haus”.

Genders

There are three genders in German: masculine (männlich), feminine (weiblich) and neuter (sächlich). Usually, the gender of a noun is determined by its ending. The articles der, die and das are used with nouns to indicate their gender:

• der Mann (the man) [Masculine Noun]
• die Frau (the woman) [Feminine Noun]
• das Kind (the child) [Neuter Noun]

It’s not easy to know which gender a noun is. There are a few rules for masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. However, usually there is no choice but to learn each word’s gender.

Declension

A noun in English, “house” for example, does not change even if we change the role it plays in a phrase. The house is pretty (“house” is the subject in this case) We bought a house (“a house” is the direct object). As you see, the word house is not declined. You just add “s” in English to make the plural. It’s very simple. Unfortunately, it is not always like this in German. This might cause you a bit of despair when you start learning German. For example, in the phrase, “Erkrankungen des Herzens”, the word “Herzens” (heart in genitive form) does not appear in the dictionary. That is because it is declined and, instead of that word, you have to look for “Herz” (heart in nominative form). It is a bit complicated but don’t worry about it. you will get it.

Regular noun declension

As a general rule, an “-n” or an “-an” are added to all nouns in the dative plural. If the noun in the plural ends with “-n” or “-s,” nothing will be added.

Masculine or Neuter Nouns

An “-s” or an “-es” is added in the genitive singular. Sometimes both options are ok. In general, if a word ends with “-e”, an “-s” is added in the genitive and if it ends with “-s” or “-z” and “-es” is added. Example for a neuter noun:

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	das Gas	die Gase
Accusative	das Gas	die Gase
Dative	dem Gas also: dem Gase	den Gasen
Genitive	des Gases	der Gase

Although it is not very common today, sometimes an “-e” is added to the dative singular. Nowadays, you can see this is some phrases:

Ich gehe nach Hause I am going home

Hause is the old declension in the dative singular for das Haus (house).

Dem deutschen Volke For the German people

Volke is the classic declension of Volk (people) in the dative singular.

Feminine Nouns

Feminine nouns do not change in the genitive singular.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	die Kraft	die Kräfte
Accusative	die Kraft	die Kräfte
Dative	der Kraft	den Kräften
Genitive	der Kraft	der Kräfte

Interestingly, a large portion of feminine plural nouns end with “-n,” meaning that luckily the majority of feminine plural nouns do not change.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	die Lampe	die Lampen
Accusative	die Lampe	die Lampen
Dative	der Lampe	den Lampen
Genitive	der Lampe	der Lampen

N-Declension

Some masculine nouns and a few neuter ones have a declension that is different from the usual one and it is called the “N-Deklination” (N-Declension).

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	der Kunde	die Kunden
Accusative	den Kunden	die Kunden
Dative	dem Kunden	den Kunden
Genitive	des Kunden	der Kunden

If we look closely at all of the forms except for the nominative singular, they have an “-n” ending. This is why it is called “N-Deklination”. Sometimes, an “-en” is added instead of adding an “-n”. For example, the noun “Mensch”.

Examples of nouns with n declension

• Most masculine nouns ending with “-e” but not der See or der Käse or der Deutsche and which represents professions or nationalities or people such as der Experte.
• Many nouns that represent professions or nationalities or people such as: der Herr, der Astronom, der Architekt.
• Latin or Greek words ending with:-at as in der Soldat, der Advokat, der Diplomat.-ant as in der Elefant, der Diamant, der Lieferant.-ent as in der Student.-ist as in der Journalist, der Zivilist, der Violinist, der Polizist.

N-Deklination + genitive with “ns”

Sometimes, the genitive is formed with “-ns” instead of “-n”.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	der Name	die Namen
Accusative	den Namen	die Namen
Dative	dem Namen	den Namen
Genitive	des Namens	der Namen

Examples of nouns with genitive “-ns”: der Friede, der Name, der Funke, der Gedanke, der Glaube, der Same, der Wille, der Buchstabe.

Exceptions

Doubling the -s

Some nouns that end with “-s” have another “-s” added in the declension.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	der Bus	die Busse
Accusative	den Bus	die Busse
Dative	dem Bus	den Bussen
Genitive	des Busses	der Busse

A short reminder about pronunciation: The “ss” indicates that the preceding vowel is shortened.

Das Herz

“Herz” has an irregular declension. It is also one of the few neuter nouns with the “-n” declension.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	das Herz	die Herzen
Accusative	das Herz	die Herzen
Dative	dem Herzen	den Herzen
Genitive	des Herzens	der Herzen

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="851"] German Languages Classes[/caption]

German Nouns

First of all, in case you are wondering ‘What is a noun?’ Quite simply, a noun is the name of a place, person, animal, idea or thing. For example, the ‘house’, a ‘cow’, the ‘garden’, a ‘table’. As you see, nouns normally appear after such words as ‘the’ and ‘a’. Unlike in English, all nouns in German have a gender – yep, just like you and I! That is, German nouns are either masculine, feminine or – and this may be a new word for you – neuter. Neuter nouns are generally – but not exclusively – related to inanimate objects (i.e. neither female nor male). This concept of nouns having genders is not actually too difficult to understand. It does, however, sound odd to our English ears as there is hardly any notion of this anymore in modern English. You will not be able to avoid this ‘gender’ issue if you are serious about learning German, so, my tip, get used to learning nouns together with their ‘definite articles’ – the equivalent of ‘the’ in English – straight away. Why? Because the ‘definite article’ will indicate the noun’s gender. And, yes, you might have already guessed it, this means there is more than one word for ‘the’ in German. Here are the German ‘definite articles’ – the different ways to say ‘the’ in German – in the ‘nominative case’ with some noun examples: (You will find a link to German cases at the end of this lesson, but don’t worry too much about ‘cases’ at the moment particularly if you are a complete beginner.) 1.) Masculine German nouns take the definite article: ‘der’. For example, der Tisch (the table) 2.) Feminine German nouns take the definite article: ‘die’. For example, die Musik (the music) 3.) Neuter German nouns take the definite article: ‘das’.  For example, das Kind (the child) Therefore, do not just learn the word for ‘table’ (Tisch) in German, learn its ‘definite article’ as well, for example ‘the table’ (der Tisch). Need some more examples? Listed below you will find a sample of German nouns listed according to gender. Make sure you learn these useful German nouns together with their respective ‘definite article’.

Masculine Nouns	Feminine Nouns	Neuter Nouns
der Tag (day)	die Zeit (time)	das Wasser (water)
der Mensch (person)	die Liebe (love)	das Kind (child)
der Stadtplan (map)	die Welt (world)	das Buch (book)
der Computer (computer)	die Bank (bank)	das Jahr (year)
der Geruch (smell)	die Regierung (government)	das Leben (life)
der Anzug (suit)	die Musik (music)	das Geld (money)
der Berg (mountain)	die Sonne (sun)	das Tier (animal)
der Wind (wind)	die Stadt (city)	das Land (country)
der Stoff (material)	die Zahl (number)	das Handy (mobile phone)
der Mann (man)	die Frau (woman)	das Unternehmen (company)

Gender Guidelines You will be glad to hear there are some guidelines as to which gender a noun will take. But never forget there are always exceptions to the rules, particularly when it comes to the gender of a German noun! German nouns are likely to be… 1.) …masculine and take ‘der’ if:- – referring to male human beings and the male of an animal species.* – referring to the days of the week, months, seasons as well as directions. – the noun ends with ‘ling’. 2.) …feminine and take ‘die’ if:- – the noun ends with any of the following: ‘ei’, ‘heit’, ‘keit’, ‘ung’, ‘schaft’. For example: die Freundschaft – friendship. – the noun denotes a female being – and sometimes female animal. For example: die Frau – the woman.* 3.) …neuter and take ‘das’ if:- – the noun ends in ‘chen’, ‘lein’, ‘icht’, ‘tum’, ‘ett’, ‘ium’, ‘ment’.   – referring to the names of towns, cities, countries as well as continents. *Be aware: Many German nouns are classified, however, as being masculine, feminine or neuter even though they are not referring to males, females or inanimate objects. For example: das Mädchen. This means girl in German and takes ‘neuter’, but a girl is clearly a female being. Slightly confusing, I know! Plural This lesson so far has focused on nouns and their respective definite articles in the singular form (i.e. one unit: the house), rather than the plural form (i.e. several units: the houses). The ‘definite article’ for all plural nouns in German is ‘die’. In English, it is of course still ‘the’. Easy to remember, huh? In English, the noun itself becomes plural in the majority of cases by adding an ‘s’ at the end (houses for example). In German, however, here is where it gets a little more complicated. While a few plural nouns will end in ‘s’ (e.g. die Hotels), the majority form plurals in a variety of different ways. The only way to be sure of the noun in the plural is to check in a dictionary. (By the way, a really great free online English-German dictionary is Leo.org.) Over time you will remember the plural forms and just start to get a feeling for them. But if you are curious as to some of these patterns and you feel ready to digest more information, I have listed a few just below (if you’re not ready, jump straight to ‘Wrap-up’ below): Masculine nouns: Nouns ending in ‘en’, ‘el or ‘er’ may not have an ending at all. Therefore, the word will remain exactly the same. You will only be ableto tell the noun is referring to several teachers for example, rather than one, purely by the plural definite article: der Lehrer (singular), die Lehrer (plural). Other masculine nouns may add an ‘umlaut’ to the vowel in the word. For example: der Mantel, die Mäntel (the coat, the coats) and others will have an additional ‘e’ or umlaut plus an ‘e’. For example: der Weg, die Wege (the path, the paths) and der Busbahnhof, die Busbahnhöfe (the bus station, the bus stations). Feminine nouns: The majority of feminine plural nouns will end in ‘(e)n’. For example, die Rose, die Rosen (the rose, the roses) and die Zahl, die Zahlen (the number, the numbers). Nouns ending in ‘in’ will have an added ‘nen’ in the plural. For example: die Lehrerin, die Lehrerinnen (the teacher, the teachers – female). Neuter nouns: Nouns ending in ‘lein’ or ‘chen’ do not change. Once again, only the definite article will indicate if the noun is referring to several girls for example, or just one girl: das Mädchen (singular), die Mädchen (plural).

Some Rules of Noun Formation

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German Personal Pronouns

Personalpronomen I (Nominativ)

German Personal Pronouns: A pronoun in German as well as in English is like a shortcut to refer to a noun, a word that stands for or represents a noun or noun phrase, a pronoun is identified only in the context of the sentence in which it is used. So you must have a prior idea about who “he or she” “er or sie” is. In English we find “I, her, what, that, his”, In German pronouns use is governed by cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive), number and gender. All these three factors can affect the pronoun. Types of pronouns include personal pronouns (refer to the persons speaking, the persons spoken to, or the persons or things spoken about), indefinite pronouns, relative (connect parts of sentences), reciprocal or reflexive pronouns (in which the object of a verb is being acted on by verb’s subject), demonstrative, and interrogative pronouns. The personal (subject) pronouns in German are (ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, Sie, sie.), and make the equivalent of (I, you, he, she, it, we, you people, you all, they) in English, usually they take the nominative form, since they’re the subject of the sentence. They’re very important and therefore they must be memorized by heart. I have a pen = Ich habe einen Kugelschreiber.

Personal Pronouns in German
Singular
I	ich
you (familiar)	du
you (formal)	Sie
he, she, it	er, sie, es
Plural
we	wir
you (familiar)	ihr
you (formal)	Sie
they	sie

German Pronoun

German Personal Pronouns

The personal (subject) pronouns in German are (ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, Sie, sie.), and make the equivalent of (I, you, he, she, it, we, you people, you all, they) in English, usually they take the nominative form, since they’re the subject of the sentence. They’re very important and therefore they must be memorized by heart.

Present simple (Präsens Indikativ)

Conjugation	Meaning
ich bin	I am
du bist	you are
er ist sie ist es ist	he is she is it is
wir sind	we are
ihr seid	you are
sie sind	they are

Examples:

Ich bin elf Jahre alt I am eleven years old

Wie ist dein Name? What is your name?

Ich bin Frank I am Frank

Was sind Sie von Beruf? What’s your profession?

Ich bin Kellnerin I’m a waitress

Es ist zwei Uhr It’s two o’clock

Wir sind zufrieden We are content

Es kann nicht sein It can’t beMemorizing this German pronoun chart doesn’t help much unless you use it in your own words. The German lessons mentioned above are full of examples of daily use. Here are some examples explaining the usage of above pronouns.

• Ich bin Peter (I am Peter)
• Du bist Peter  (You are Peter)
• Sie sind Peter (You are Peter)
• Er ist Peter (He is Peter)
• Sie ist Monika  (She is Monika)
• Es ist Tommy (It is Tommy)
• Wir sind Amerikaner (We are American)
• Ihr seid Amerikaner (You are American)
• Sie sind Amerikaner (They are American)

You must have noticed in the above sentences that each German pronoun comes with a different “Be-verb”. Like, “Ich-Bin”, “Du-Bist”, “Er ist”etc. This is very similar to English “I-am”,”You-are” and “He-is” respectively. A particular German pronoun is always followed by a particular German Be-verb. This is called subject-verb agreement. Subject-verb agreement exist in all languages and German language is no exception. The following chart shows German pronouns and their possessive form but please learn them through the lessons mentioned above instead of memorizing this chart. This chart is here only for the purpose of providing a summary of possessive form of German pronouns.

German Object Pronouns

Object pronouns replace the object of a sentence; direct object pronouns take the place of the direct object nouns, let’s take this example “I see a man”, “a man” can be replaced in English by the direct object pronoun “him” and not “he”, so it would be “I see him”, the same thing happens in German: Ich sehe einen Mann becomes Ich sehe ihn. Note that the direct object pronoun in German is associated with the accusative case:

Direct Object Pronouns in German
Singular
me	mich
you (familiar)	dich
you (formal)	Sie
him, her, it	ihn, sie, es
Plural
us	uns
you (familiar)	euch
you (formal)	Sie
them	sie

The indirect object pronouns (IOP) are used to replace nouns (people or things) in a sentence to which the action of the verb occurs. In English usually it is preceded by a preposition, “I give the book to Katja”, the name “Katja” is an indirect object noun, to replace it with a pronoun we would say in English “her”, in German we would say “ihr”, note that since the IOP is associated with thedative, the preposition “to” that we would usually use in English is not used in German, or rather we would say that it’s mixed with the pronoun (look at the table below to understand the concept better), for example “to her” in German will become one word “ihr”.

Indirect Object Pronouns in German
Singular
to me	mir
to you (familiar)	dir
to you (familiar)	Ihnen
to him, to her, to it	ihm, ihr, ihm
Plural
to us	uns
to you (familiar)	euch
to you (formal)	Ihnen
to them	ihnen

German Personal Pronouns: The nominative personal pronouns are one of the first things to learn in German as they are the basics to form our first sentences. One interesting fact about German is that the formal way of writing “you” is “Sie” and it is always capitalized.

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
ich	I	mich	me	mir	me, to me	meiner	mine
du	you	dich	you	dir	you, to you	deiner	yours
er	he	ihn	him	ihm	him,to him	seiner	his
sie	she	sie	her	ihr	her, to her	ihrer	hers
es	it	es	it	ihm	it, to it	seiner	its
wir	we	uns	us	uns	us, to us	unser	ours
ihr	you	euch	you	euch	you, to you	euer	yours
sie Sie	they you (formal)	sie Sie	them you (formal)	ihnen Ihnen	to them to you (formal)	ihrer Ihrer	theirs yours (formal)

What is a pronoun? A pronoun is – as the word says – to substitute a noun. In a position pro- (for) noun. Have a look.

	Singular	Plural
1. PERSON	ich	wir
2. PERSON	du Sie (Höflichkeitsform)	ihr Sie (Höflichkeitsform)
3. PERSON	er (maskulin) sie (feminin) es (neutrum)	sie

Konjugation Präsens I

	Singular	Plural
1. PERSON	ich geh-e	wir geh-en
2. PERSON	du geh-st Sie geh-en	ihr geh-t Sie geh-en
3. PERSON	er geh-t sie geh-t es geh-t	sie geh-en

Konjugation Präsens II (sein)

	Singular	Plural
1. PERSON	ich bin	wir sind
2. PERSON	du bist Sie sind	ihr seid Sie sind
3. PERSON	er ist sie ist es ist	sie sind

Konjugation Präsens III (haben)

	Singular	Plural
1. PERSON	ich habe	wir haben
2. PERSON	du hast Sie haben	ihr habt Sie haben
3. PERSON	er hat sie hat es hat	sie haben

4.2 Personal Pronouns in Basic Form (Nominative)

What is a pronoun? A pronoun is – as the word says – to substitute a noun. In a position pro- (for) noun. Have a look. Germans drink too much beer. we can also say They drink too much beer.   pronouns ich I du you er he sie she es it wir we ihr you sie they You might have heard before that one of the crazy things in German language is that everything has a gender, even though it might be just a thing. They can be feminine, masculine or neutral. And then there is absolutely no logic in this issue. For instance is the German baby a neutral. Das Kind schläft. = The baby sleeps Es schläft. = It sleeps. But there are other weird combinations, too. Der Tisch ist braun. (masculine) = The table is brown. Er ist braun. = He (It) is brown.Das Haus ist grün (neutrum) = The house is green. Es ist grün. = It is green.Die Tasse ist gelb. (feminine) = The cup is yellow Sie ist gelb. = She (it) is yellow.     Things only get easier in plural forms because there is no difference between the genders of the words. Die Frauen lesen. = The women are reading. Sie lesen = They are reading. Die Männer lesen. = The men are reading. Sie lesen = They are reading. Die Babys lesen. = The babies are reading. Sie lesen = They are reading. One big step is to learn the personal pronouns because you will need them a lot. A conjugation is the change of the verb according to the subject. For this endings (suffixes) are appended to the stem of the verb. First question is What is the stem? Well, it’s the root without the endings.

German Conjugation – Weak Verbs A conjugation is the change of the verb according to the subject. For this endings (suffixes) are appended to the stem of the verb. First question is What is the stem? Well, it’s the root without the endings. German verbs in basic form always have the ending -en. That means that you take away the -en and you have the stem of the verb. Then you take the right suffix to append it to the verb and you have a perfect conjugation: infinitive       bringen trinken sagen kaufen translation to bring to drink to say to buy stem / root bring trink sag kauf ich bring–e (I bring) trink-e sag-e kauf-e du bring–st (you bring) trink-st sag-st kauf-st er bring–t (he brings) trink-t sag-t kauf-t sie bring–t (she brings) trink-t sag-t kauf-t es bring–t (it brings) trink-t sag-t kauf-t wir bring–en (we bring) trink-en sag-en kauf-en ihr bring–t (you bring) trink-t sag-t kauf-t sie bring–en (they bring) trink-en sag-en kauf-en infinitive          bringen weinen lachen schwimmen translation to bring to cry to laugh to swim stem / root bring wein lach schwimm ich bring–e (I bring) wein-e lach-e schwimm-e du bring–st (you bring) wein-st lach-st schwimm-st er bring–t (he brings) wein-t lach-t schwimm-t sie bring–t (she brings) wein-t lach-t schwimm-t es bring–t (he brings) wein-t lach-t schwimm-t wir bring–en (we bring) wein-en lach-en

Personal pronouns

The nominative personal pronouns are one of the first things to learn in German as they are the basics to form our first sentences. One interesting fact about German is that the formal way of writing “you” is “Sie” and it is always capitalized.

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
ich	I	mich	me	mir	me, to me	meiner	mine
du	you	dich	you	dir	you, to you	deiner	yours
er	he	ihn	him	ihm	him,to him	seiner	his
sie	she	sie	her	ihr	her, to her	ihrer	hers
es	it	es	it	ihm	it, to it	seiner	its
wir	we	uns	us	uns	us, to us	unser	ours
ihr	you	euch	you	euch	you, to you	euer	yours
sie Sie	they you (formal)	sie Sie	them you (formal)	ihnen Ihnen	to them to you (formal)	ihrer Ihrer	theirs yours (formal)

The third person singular is formed with “er” (he), “sie” (she) and “es” (it).

Ich singe ein Lied für dich I am singing a song for you

Ich habe dir eine Email geschickt I have sent you an e-mail

The current use of genitive pronouns in German is rare and sounds old (Often, it’s substituted by dative pronouns):

Ich will dir statt seiner einen Kuss geben (old form with genitive) Ich will dir statt ihm einen Kuss geben (modern form with Dative) I want to give you a kiss and not him.

Possessive Pronouns

The possessive pronouns in German are:

	German	English
1 Person Sing.	mein	my
2 Person Sing.	dein	your
3 Person Sing.	sein ihr sein	his her its
1 Person Plural	unser	our
2 Person Plural	euer	your
3 Person Plural	ihr	their

Unfortunately, the possessive pronouns are declined and, this has always been a bit confusing. Let’s try and make this clear. There are 3 declensions depending on the function of the pronoun:

• Attributive (possessive pronoun that comes before a noun) or determiner
• Not attributive without article
• Not attributive with article

Attributive or determiner

This is when the possessive pronoun comes before a noun:

Mein Name ist Helmut My name is Helmut

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	mein /dein sein/ihr/sein unser/euer/ihr	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	mein /dein sein/ihr/sein unser/euer/ihr	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre
Accusative	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	mein /dein sein/ihr/sein unser/euer/ihr	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre
Dative	meinem /deinem seinem/ihrem/seinem unserem/eurem/ihrem	meiner /deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/eurer/ihrer	meinem /deinem seinem/ihrem/seinem unserem/eurem/ihrem	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren
Genitive	meines /deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meiner/deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/eurer/ihrer	meines/deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meiner /deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/ eurer/ihrer

Not attributive without article

When the possessive pronoun does not accompany a noun or an article:

Der Kuli ist meiner The pen is mine

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	meiner /deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/eurer/ihrer	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meines/deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre
Accusative	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meines/deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre
Dative	meinem /deinem seinem/ihrem/seinem unserem/eurem/ihrem	meiner /deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/eurer/ihrer	meinem /deinem seinem/ihrem/seinem unserem/eurem/ihrem	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren
Genitive	meines /deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meiner/deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/eurer/ihrer	meines/deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meiner /deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/ eurer/ihrer

Not attributive with article

When the possessive pronoun is accompanied by an article:

Ein Kuli ist der meine A pen is mine

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren
Accusative	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren
Dative	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren
Genitive	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren

Reflexive pronouns

Just like in English, in some cases, reflexive verbs need a reflexive pronoun to complete the meaning of the verb (Example: I dressed myself)

Ich erinnere mich nicht I don’t remember

	Accusative	Dative
1 Person Sing.	mich	mir
2 Person Sing.	dich	dir
3 Person Sing.	sich	sich
1 Person Plural	uns	uns
2 Person Plural	euch	euch
2 Person Plural	sich	sich

Demonstrative pronouns

The following demonstrative pronouns exist in German:

• der, die, das (that one)
• dieser (this one)
• jener (that one)
• derjenige (that)
• derselbe (the same one)

These pronouns are declined according to the gender, number and the case of the noun they refer to:

Diese Frau ist Sängerin This woman is a singer

This picture shows the demonstrative pronouns “der”, “die” and “das”:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die
Dative	dem	der	dem	denen
Genitive	dessen	deren	dessen	deren

The pronouns “der”, “dieser” and “jener” have a strong declension:

Strong declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	dieser	diese	dieses/dies	diese
Accusative	diesen	diese	dieses/dies	diese
Dative	diesem	dieser	diesem	diesen
Genitive	dieses	dieser	dieses	dieser

The pronouns “derjenige”, “derselbe” are both declined “der” with the strong declension and “jenige/selbe” with the weak one:

Strong declension + Weak declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	derselbe	dieselbe	dasselbe	dieselben
Accusative	denselben	dieselbe	dasselbe	dieselben
Dative	demselben	derselben	demselben	denselben
Genitive	desselben	derselben	desselben	derselben

Indefinite Pronouns

The main indefinite pronouns are:

• alle (all)
• andere (other)
• beide (both)
• einige (some)
• ein bisschen (a bit)
• ein paar (a couple)
• jeder (each)
• jemand (someone)
• kein (none)
• man (one)
• mancher (some)
• mehrere (several)
• niemand (no one)

alle

This generally has a strong declension and is almost always used in the plural

Strong declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	aller	alle	alles	alle
Accusative	allen	alle	alles	alle
Dative	allem	aller	allem	allen
Genitive	alles/allen*	aller	alles/allen*	aller

Hamburger mit allem Hamburger with everything

But if it comes before a:

• definite article
• possessive pronoun
• demonstrative pronoun

It is not declined and it is written in its non-changing form all.

andere

Depending on the particle that comes before it, it has a declension:

• Without article ➜ Strong declension.

Auf dem Tisch steht eine Flasche Wein und eine Flasche mit anderem Inhalt There’s a bottle of wine on the table and a bottle with other contents

Er lebt jetzt mit anderem Namen in Mexiko He lives in Mexico now with another name

• Indefinite article or possessive pronouns ➜ Mixed declension.

Mein anderer Hund ist groß My other dog is big

• Definite article ➜ Weak declension.

Ich habe ein Stück Torte genommen, die anderen hat Michael gegessen I took a piece of cake. Michael ate the other ones

beide

Usually “beide” is only used in the plural:

	Strong declension (plural)	Mixed declension (plural)	Weak declension (plural)
Nominative	beide	beiden	beiden
Accusative	beide	beiden	beiden
Dative	beiden	beiden	beiden
Genitive	beider	beiden	beiden

To find out which declension to use, check out the example of andere.

Wir haben zwei Kinder, und beide sind so unterschiedlich We have two children, and both are so different

Examples of the 3 declensions:

Beide Arme nach oben Both arms up (strong)

Meine beiden Arme Both my arms (mixed)

Die beiden Arme Both arms (weak)

einige

It only has a strong declension:

Haus mit einigem Luxus House with (some) luxury

Strong declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	einiger	einige	einiges	einige
Accusative	einigen	einige	einiges	einige
Dative	einigem	einiger	einigem	einigen
Genitive	einiges	einiger	einiges	einiger

ein bisschen

It is correct to decline “ein bisschen” as well as leave it unchanged:

Mit ein bisschen Glück With a bit of luck

Mit einem bisschen Glück With a bit of luck

ein paar

“Ein paar” never changes:

Mit ein paar Freunden With a couple of friends

jeder

Usually, “jeder” only is used in the singular and its declension is strong:

Der Morgen kommt nach jeder Nacht The morning arrives after every night

Strong declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	jeder	jede	jedes
Accusative	jeden	jede	jedes
Dative	jedem	jeder	jedem
Genitive	jedes/jeden*	jeder	jedes/jeden*

jemand

“jemand” is only used in the singular and it doesn’t depend on the gender. It’s correct to decline it as well as to leave it unchanged.

Jemand kommt Someone’s coming

Strong declension	Singular
Nominative	jemand
Accusative	jemand jemanden
Dative	jemand jemandem
Genitive	jemands jemandes

kein

There are 2 declensions depending on “kein”‘s function:

• Attributive
• Not attributive without article

Attributive Attributive When the pronoun “kein” comes before a noun

Ich habe keine Lampe I don’t have any lamp

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	kein	keine	kein	keine
Accusative	keinen	keine	kein	keine
Dative	keinem	keiner	keinem	keinen
Genitive	keines	keiner	keines	keiner

Not attributive without article When the pronoun does not accompany a noun

Hast du ein Auto? Nein, ich habe keines Do you have a car? No, I don’t have one

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	keiner	keine	keines	keine
Accusative	keinen	keine	keines	keine
Dative	keinem	keiner	keinem	keinen
Genitive	keines	keiner	keines	keiner

man

“man” does not change and it is only used in the nominative to make impersonal phrases.

Man kann nie wissen You never know

Sentences with the pronoun “man” are an alternative way to form the passive voice.

mancher

“mancher” has a strong declension.

Manche Autos verbrauchen weniger als 3 Liter Some cars consume less than 3 liters

Strong declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	mancher	manche	manches	manche
Accusative	manchen	manche	manches	manche
Dative	manchem	mancher	manchem	manchen
Genitive	manches / manchen*	mancher	manches / manchen*	mancher

mehrere

“mehrere” is only used in the plural:

In mehreren Sprachen In several languages

Strong declension	Plural
Nominative	mehrere
Accusative	mehrere
Dative	mehreren
Genitive	mehrerer

niemand

“niemand” is used only in the singular and does not depend on the gender. It’s correct to decline it as well as to leave it unchanged.

Niemand ist schuld No one is guilty

Strong declension	Singular
Nominative	niemand
Accusative	niemand niemanden
Dative	niemand niemandem
Genitive	niemands niemandes

Forming the masculine and neuter genitive “-en” instead of using “-es”

The indefinite pronouns “alle”, “jeder”, “mancher”, etc (strong declension) form the genitive sometimes with “-en” instead of “-es”. This has a logical explanation: Most masculine or neuter nouns add an “-s” already when forming the genitive.

Die Meinung manches Lesers The opinion of some reader

That is why adding “-en” instead of “-es” is the preferred choice in many cases.

Die Meinung manchen Lesers

It is important to emphasize that if the noun does not add an “-s” in the genitive (for example, the nouns with N-declension), the genitive of pronouns is formed only with “-es”.

Die Meinung manches Kunden The opinion of some client

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Introduction

German has three words — der, die and das — for the definite article the. To make matters more confusing for someone learning German, these three definite articles change spelling according to the case of the noun that they appear with in a sentence. The same is true for the indefinite articles. Just as English has two indefinite articles — a and an — that you use with singular nouns, German also has two indefinite articles (in the nominative case): ein for masculine- and neuter-gender words and eine for feminine-gender words. Another similarity with English is that the German indefinite article ein/eine doesn’t have a plural form. Depending on how you’re describing something plural, you may or may not need to use the plural definite article. Consider the following generalized statement, which requires no article: In Zermatt sind Autos verboten. (Cars are forbidden in Zermatt [Switzerland].) The following table shows you the definite articles and the corresponding indefinite articles (nominative case):

Gender/Number	Definite (the)	Indefinite (a/an)
Masculine	der	ein
Feminine	die	eine
Neuter	das	ein
Plural	die	(no plural form)

In German language, there are three definite articles for nouns in singular: der for masculine nouns, die for feminine nouns and das neutral nouns. German native speakers know mostly intuitively what the article of each noun is. However, non-native speakers need to memorize the articles. There are several rules and guidelines determining the articles of some categories of nouns. But there are a lot of exceptions.

Rules for Article ‘Der’

The following nouns have the article der:

• Nouns for masculine persons and functions/professions: Vater, Pilot, Arzt;
• Names of seasons: Frühling, Sommer, Herbst, Winter;
• Names of months: Januar, Juli, Dezember;
• Names of days of the week: Montag, Dienstag, Sonntag;
• Names of compass directions: Nordwest(en), Süd(en);
• Names of precipitations: Regen, Schnee, Hagel;
• Names of car brands: Audi, BMW, Mercedes;
• Names of trains: IC;
• Nouns derived from verbs without suffix: Gang, Fang;

The following categories of nouns have mainly the article der:

• Names of alcoholic beverages: Cognac, Wein, Whiskey; exceptions: das Bier;
• Names of rivers outside Europe: Amazonas, Mississippi;
• Names of mountains: Mont Blanc, Kilimanjaro; exception: die Zugspitze;

Furthermore, nouns with the suffixes below have the article der:

• –er (nouns derived from verbs): Fahrer, Lehrer;
• –ismus: Kapitalismus, Journalismus;

Most of nouns with the following suffixes have the article der:

• –ant: Demonstrant, Elefant; exceptions: das Croissant, das Restaurant;
• –ling: Lehrling, Schützling; exceptions: das Dribbling, das Bowling;
• –ner: Rentner, Schaffner, Zöllner; exceptions: das Banner, die Wiener (Wurst);
• –or: Motor, Traktor; exceptions: das Gegentor, das Chlor;

Watch out: this is applicable only to nouns in singular. All nouns in plural have the article die.

Watch out: diminutives have always the article das: der Kopf → das Köpfchen.

Rules for Article ‘Die’

The following nouns have the article die:

• Nouns for feminine persons and functions/professions: Mutter, Friseuse, Ärztin;
• Names of motorcycle brands: Harley Davidson, BMW (only motorcycle), Yamaha;
• Names of planes and ships: Boeing 747, Titanic;
• Cardinal numbers: Eins, Drei;

The following categories of nouns have mainly the article die:

• Names of plants and trees: Birke, Chrysantheme, Rose; exceptions: der Ahorn, das Veilchen;

Furthermore, nouns with the suffixes below have the article die:

• –falt: Vielfalt;
• –heit: Freiheit, Sicherheit;
• –keit: Möglichkeit, Schnelligkeit;
• –schaft: Freundschaft, Mannschaft;
• –t (nouns derived from verbs): Fahrt, Tat;
• –ung: Leitung, Zeitung;

Foreign nouns with the suffixes below have the article die:

• –ade: Hitparade, Marmelade;
• –age: Garage, Passage;
• –anz: Eleganz, Dominanz;
• –enz: Existenz, Tendenz;
• –ik: Kritik, Musik;
• –ion: Diskussion, Koalition;
• –tät: Identität, Qualität;
• –ur: Agentur, Reparatur;

Most of nouns with the following suffixes have the article die:

• –e: Grenze, Lampe; exceptions: der Junge, der Friede;
• –ei: Abtei, Metzgerei; exceptions: das Ei, der Papagei;
• –ie: Diplomatie, Psychologie; exceptions: der Junkie, der Hippie;
• –in: Ärztin, Studentin; exceptions: das Benzin, der Harlekin;

Beware: diminutives have always the article das: die Hand → das Händchen.

Rules for Article ‘Das’

The following nouns have the article das:

• Diminutives (–chen, –lein): Kaninchen, Fräulein;
• Nouns derived from infinitives: Essen, Schreiben;
• Nouns derived from adjectives: Gute, Böse;
• Names of colors: Rot, Gelb, Blau;

The following categories of nouns have the article das:

• Almost all of the 112 known chemical elements: Aluminium, Kupfer, Uran; 6 exceptions: der Kohlenstoff, der Sauerstoff, der Stickstoff, der Wasserstoff, der Phosphor, der Schwefel;
• Names of metals: Blei, Messing, Zinn; exceptions: die Bronze, der Stahl;
• Fractions: Drittel (⅓), Viertel (¼); exception: die Hälfte (½);

Furthermore, nouns with the suffixes below have the article das:

• –ial: Material, Potenzial;

Most of nouns with the following suffixes have the article das:

• –ment: Instrument, Parlament; exceptions: der Konsument, der Zement;
• –nis: Ergebnis, Tennis; exceptions: die Fahrerlaubnis, die Wildnis;
• –o: Auto, Konto; exceptions: die Avocado, der Euro;
• –tum: Quantum, Ultimatum; exceptions: der Reichtum, der Irrtum;
• –um (nouns of Latin origin): Publikum, Museum, Stadium;

Beware: this is applicable only to nouns in singular. All nouns in plural have the article die.

German Definite Articles by Gender (Nominative Case)

German Definite Article (English meaning)	Gender (Abbreviation Seen in Dictionaries)	German Example (English meaning)
der (the)	masculine (m)	der Löffel (the spoon)
die (the)	feminine (f)	die Gabel (the fork)
das (the)	neuter (n or nt)	das Messer (the knife)
die (the)	plural (pl)	die Menschen (the people)

Some categories of nouns are consistently masculine, feminine, or neuter. For instance, noun gender usually follows the gender of people: der Onkel (the uncle) and die Schwester (the sister). In many other cases, the noun categories have to do with the ending of the noun. The following two tables provide some fairly reliable categories of nouns and their genders.

Common Genders by Noun Ending (Or Beginning)

Usually Masculine (der)	Usually Feminine (die)	Usually Neuter (das)
-er (especially when referring to male people/jobs)	-ade, -age, -anz, -enz, -ette, -ine, -ion, -tur (if foreign/borrowed from another language)	-chen
-ich	-e	-ium
-ismus	-ei	-lein
-ist	-heit	-ment (if foreign/borrowed from another language)
-ner	-ie	-o
	-ik	-tum or -um
	-in (when referring to female people/occupations)	Ge-
	-keit
	-schaft
	-tät
	-ung

Common Genders by Noun Subject

Usually Masculine (der)	Usually Feminine (die)	Usually Neuter (das)
Days, months, and seasons: der Freitag(Friday)	Many flowers: die Rose (the rose)	Colors (adjectives) used as nouns: grün (green) das Grün (the green)
Map locations: der Süd(en) (the south)	Many trees: die Buche (the beech)	Geographic place names: das Europa(Europe)
Names of cars and trains: der Audi (the Audi) and der ICE(the Intercity Express)	Names of aircraft and ships: die Boeing 767 (the Boeing 767), die Titanic (the Titanic)	Infinitives used as nouns (gerunds): schwimmen(to swim) das Schwimmen(swimming)
Nationalities and words showing citizenship: der Amerikaner (the American)	Cardinal numbers:eine Drei (a three)	Young people and animals: das Baby (the baby)
Occupations: der Arzt(the doctor)		Almost all the chemical elements and most metals: das Aluminium(aluminum) and das Blei(lead)
Names of most mountains and lakes:der Großglockner(the highest mountain in Austria)
Most rivers outside of Europe: der Amazonas (the Amazon)

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