Articles

You know, we really are lucky that many aspects of English are very simple. One such gift is our definite and indefinite articles and adjectives: we can use them wherever we wish without having to consider their declinations (endings). For example, "The dog runs", "The cat hates the dog", I give the steak to the dog", and "I like the color of the dog" all use the same article "the" to describe a specific dog. We can even add adjectives to our sentences and still we use the same word "the" as the means to refer to a specific noun. Unfortunately, German contains an added layer of complexity as to how articles and adjectives are to be used and spelled in a sentence. This additional complexity is an unnecessary burden most of the time, but there are instances where it can introduce some clarity. For the German student, this area is definitely one of the major impediments to mastery of the language. This chapter specifically covers the definite and indefinite articles. Adjectives are covered in the following chapter.
 

The Definite Articles

If the first German speakers, whomever they were, had stopped here life would be a lot simpler. We could just talk about der Hund (the dog), die Katze (the cat), das Bier (the beer), or die Hunde (the dogs) in conversation willy nilly like in English and all would be just fine. But things are unfortunately not that simple. There are actually four sets of definite articles in German, each set corresponding to the case of the noun to which they refer. You probably recognize seeing a table something like this before: (if you are not familiar with the cases this won't make any sense)

Oh, crap! There are sixteen unique ways to use six different forms of "the", and no logical pattern. Things like this are what makes German so hard to learn for those who don't spend the first 18 years of their lives soaked in it! Anyway, there is a stupid little phrase that you can easily learn that helps you regurgitate the correct article: "ree-see, nee-see, mormon, sir-sir", which is made by combining the last letter of each article in the order shown in the table (i.e. rese, nese, mrmn, srsr).

Using the example dog sentences from above, grammatically correct German equivalents would be as follows (Hund is masculine):

	EXAMPLES OF DEFINITE ARTICLE USAGE BY CASE
	Sentence	Translation	Explanation of definite article
Nominative	Der Hund rennt.	The dog runs.	Hund uses the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence.
Accusative	Die Katze hasst den Hund.	The cat hates the dog.	Hund uses the accusative case because it is the direct object of the sentence.
Dative	Ich gebe das Steak dem Hund.	I give the steak to the dog.	Hund uses the dative case because it is the indirect object of the sentence.
Genitive	Ich mag die Farbe des Hundes.	I like the color of the dog.	Hund uses the genitive case here. It also changes endings (see related topic).

The Indefinite Articles

"Der" Words

"Ein" Words

Summary