A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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Offline Textbook | A Foundation Course in Reading German https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/readinggerman/print-entire-textbook/ Page 21 of 151 12/8/2017 MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER PLURAL GENITIVE eines + s/es einer eines + s/es keiner Remember: 1. das and ein always indicate singular. 2. des and eines are unique to singular genitive. 3. dem and einem are unique to singular dative. 4. die with nouns ending in –en is always plural. Difference from English Usage As you can see, German definite articles – in all their variety – carry a lot more information than does our one-size-fits-all, English "the." Accordingly, German uses definite articles more often than English does. This is particularly important for you to consider when a German sentence makes a universal statement. In English we signal a universal statement by avoiding "the" and/or using plural forms of nouns. German, however, often still needs the noun articles in order to clarify the sentence syntax. So it is up to you to interpret whether a statement is universal or not from the context and sense of the sentence. Der Katzenschwanz ist ein Indikator für die unterschiedlichen Stimmungen der Katze. The tail of a cat is an indicator of the various moods of a cat. [or:] Tails of cats are indicators of the various moods of cats. Die Freiheit der Meinung erlaubt aber nicht die Verächtlichmachung von Religionen. Freedom of thought does not, however, permit the disparagement of religions. The second example is a quotation from an online discussion forum in Germany. Your own knowledge of English tells you that translating the first phrase as "The freedom of the thought" would be inappropriate (because it doesn’t make sense, right?). Similarly, German speakers may use definite articles with proper nouns or specific individuals (which we don’t do in English) in order to clarify sentence syntax. This usually occurs in more informal situations. For example: Nein, Willi, das gehört der Mutter. No, Willi, that belongs to Mom (or: to your mother).
Offline Textbook | A Foundation Course in Reading German https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/readinggerman/print-entire-textbook/ Page 22 of 151 12/8/2017 Dem Karl verdanke ich die blauen Flecken hier. I owe these bruises here to Karl. The reverse is not true, however. You must always understand a German noun that has no article just as you would an English noun that has no article (like Religionen in the earlier example above). Finally, do not over-apply this rule. When inclusion of the definite article in German does make sense to carry over in to your English translation, you must do that. Imagine if the German sentence had omitted the definite article: if that would give you a different meaning, then clearly you need to respect the fact that the German sentence chose to include the definite article. Unit: 2: Cases, present tense 4. Pronouns (All Cases) As you begin memorizing the articles for the four German cases, it may help to simultaneously be memorizing the pronouns for the four cases, since articles and pronouns share some patterns of case and gender-specific spellings. It may all "make sense" as you begin to recognize the spelling patterns. Memorizing the articles and pronouns for the four cases, three genders, and plural is a tedious but necessary and relatively small-scale task for learning to read German. You should be able to find complete charts of all the article and pronoun forms in a reference section within your German-English dictionary. Meanwhile, here is a pronoun chart: NOMINATIVE ACCUSATIVE DATIVE SINGULAR ich I mich me mir du you dich you dir er he / it ihn him / it ihm sie she / it sie her / it ihr es it es it ihm PLURAL wir we uns us uns ihr you euch you euch sie they sie them ihnen SING./PLURAL Sie you Sie you Ihnen
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A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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