This was also done in the Danish language until 1948 and sometimes in (New) Latin, while Early Modern English showed tendencies towards noun capitalization. For sure, you have noticed, that there is certain structure in the German numbers from “dreizehn” until “neunzehn”. This is a nearly unique feature in a contemporary language, and it’s helpful in parsing sentences when there are words you don’t know. Most nouns do not take declensions in the accusative or singular dative cases. It always has an article, except if it is an indefinite plural noun or refers to an uncountable mass. In my last post I discussed what adjectival endings you have to use when you use a noun with a definite article. "direction", as in "ich fahre (in) Richtung München", I'm driving in the direction of Munich) takes the accusative. ), and direction with the accusative, as in "where to?" Luckily there's only a small amount of numbers you have to learn. to a sentence. (Turn the lights off! Ein basically means "one" and like the definite article, it indicates the gender of the noun it goes with (eine or ein). (dem) Hause, Wege or Tode) which are, however, quite numerous; in these cases, omitting the -e would be similarly unusual. The sentence Ich hänge das Bild an die (acc.) Idafa), but it occurs frequently after nouns which do not actually take an "s" in their genitive cases. Luckily there’s only a small amount of exceptions you have to learn. das Zentrum → die Zentren). Points of the compass, map locations and winds: Agents (people who do something), most occupations and nationalities: Names of aircraft, ships, and motorbikes. The case of a particular noun depends on the grammatical function of the noun in the sentence. Personal pronouns of the first and second person are placed before numbers. These words affect the tone of a sentence instead of conveying a specific literal meaning. by employing the dative case together with a possessive pronoun instead of the genitive, to poke fun at what the author perceives as a decline in the German language, since in written German a dative construction replacing the genitive is still considered a major error. Indeed, the genitive case has been widely out of use in most dialects of the German language for centuries. For example, das tor is the gate or portal, while der tor is the fool. So, this means that the smaller number is followed by the higher number. A nominal phrase contains at least a cardinal number, an adjective, a pronoun or a noun. die Frau, dat. Well, by knowing this order and the “und” between them, it should be no problem for you to form the numbers from 21 to 99. den Buchstaben, dat. The German language has several different ways of forming the plural. If the noun is uncountable, an article is not used; otherwise, the meaning of the sentence changes. There are two varieties. Most German nouns are of one of these genders. German ordinal numbers in use: Choosing the proper gender, grammatical case, and number (pt. article, number (cardinal or ordinal), adjective(s), noun, genitive attribute, position(s), relative clause, reflexive pronoun, (the third stunning performance of the drama by Schiller this week in Hamburg). Personal pronouns of the first and second person are placed before numbers. die Frauen, acc. Of course, most noun phrases are not this complicated; adjectives, numbers, genitive attributes, positions, relative clauses and emphasizers are always optional. Both forms are possible. So if you know the cardinal numbers, you can construct the ordinal number pretty quickly in German. a) nom. This ending is also still used semi-productively in poetry and music, mostly for the purposes of meter and rhyme. The following table shows two examples which exemplify all three cases: Note that the word "kein" is declined similarly to the indefinite article. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Personal pronouns of the third person cannot be used with numbers. The other ordinals are constructed in the same repeating pattern, which is easy to understand and use. A German noun – excluding pluralia tantum – has one of three specific grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter). Additionally, the dative case is commonly used to indicate possession of bodily parts that are the direct objects of an action. They get their gender and number from the noun they modify, but the case from their function in their own clause. As you can see, when you use nouns in the plural with possessive pronouns you have to add the ending –n to all forms of the ordinal or adjective, thus it is the same like in the singular with definite articles. The dative plural of all nouns ends in -n if such an ending does not already exist, except that of nouns that form the plural with -s, which are usually. But how – in God’s name – should you remember all the number? Furthermore, there are instances where German uses a preposition in a way that might seem strange to a native English speaker, e.g. To reduce length or to highlight distinctions, a prefix or suffix is sometimes mentioned only once but applies to more than one compound noun. Hyde Flippo taught the German language for 28 years at high school and college levels and published several books on the German language and culture. A German moon is masculine (der mond), while a Spanish moon is feminine (la luna). These guidelines work for many noun categories, but certainly not for all. einer der Besten "one of the best"). Especially among the higher educated, it is considered a minor embarrassment to be caught using the dative case incorrectly. Looking for podcasts in Welsh to practice? German verbs may be classified as either weak, if they form their past tense with a dental consonant inflection, or strong, if they exhibit a vowel gradation (ablaut). It has a case, a number, and a gender. Sprechen, Reden, Sagen – What’s The Difference. So, these were the ordinal numbers in German. Some foreign endings, such as Latin -um, are deleted before the plural ending (e.g. Fall), genitive (Genitiv, Wes[sen]fall, 2. Declension of adjectives is mandatory even in proper names. IV: A few masculine nouns take -(e)n for accusative and dative, and -(e)ns for genitive. it could be any grammatical case. But as you know, there’s no rule without exception…. (2) Nouns are capitalized, like proper names in English: Freund, Stadt, Ball, Freiheit. das Kind, acc. Anyway, let’s come back to our list. Articles have the same plural forms for all three genders. [citation needed][a]. Are you meeting someone at the lake (am see) or by the sea (an der see)? A good general rule for learning German vocabulary is to treat the article of a noun as an integral part of the word. If the number is relatively low, it is usually not combined with an indefinite plural article (e.g. (wohin?). Three genders of German nouns There are two important points to know about the noun in German language: Every noun starts with a capital letter. From now on, the scheme is quite basic and repeats itself in a logic manner. For plural nouns: