Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Articles: Indefinite Articles

The indefinite articles in German refer to unspecified persons, objects, ideas…etc. and they are: ein, eine, ein, they all mean the indefinite article “a, an” in English; ein is used for masculine and neuter nouns and eine is used for feminine nouns. There is no plural for the indefinite article. 


German Indefinite Article
Masculine
ein Mann (a man)
Feminine
eine Frau (a woman)
Neuter
ein Kind (a child)


The forms we went through above are only for the nominative case. Let’s have a look at the rest:


German Indefinite Articles

masculine
feminine
neuter

Nominative case
ein
eine
ein
a, an
Genitive case
eines
einer
eines
of a, of an
Dative case
einem
einer
einem
to a, to an
Accusative case
einen
eine
ein
a, an


Here are some examples:
Nominative: ein Mann ist hier (a man is here)
Genitive: Ich habe das Buch eines Mannes (I have the book of a man)
Dative: Ich gebe einem Mann ein Buch (I give the book to a man)
Accusative: Ich grüße einen Mann (I greet a man)

Task
1. Memorize the table above.
2. To practice these forms go to the Languages Online link, there go to Deutsch - Grammar - Cases with ein, dein, mein, sein, ihr. It allows you to practice both the indefinite article and possessive adjectives at the same time.

It's not easy at first, but you will soon get better with practice.
 

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