LEKTION 1
Articles
In German, as in English, there are two types of articles: definite and indefinite. The definite article (bestimmter Artikel) has the following forms:
| Der |
Masculine singular |
El |
| Die |
Feminine singular |
La |
| Das |
Neutral singular |
El / la |
| Die |
Plural |
Los / las |
Whilst the indefinite article (unbestimmter Artikel) has the following forms:
| Ein |
Masculine singular |
Un |
| Eine |
Feminine singular |
Una |
| Ein |
Neutral singular |
Uno / una |
In German, the plural forms do not have just one rule, therefore you need to learn the plural form with the word.
| Der Sohn |
Die Söhne |
The son/the sons |
| Die Schwester |
Die Schwestern |
The sister/the sisters |
| Das Haus |
Die Häuser |
The house/the houses |
The article accompanies the noun, agreeing with it in gender, number and case. The "case" refers to the declension of the word (nominative, accusative, etc), depending on its function in a sentence.
| Ein Hund |
A dog |
| Ein Haus |
A house |
| Eine Katze |
A cat |
| Ich habe einen Hund |
I have a dog |
| Ich habe ein Haus |
I have a house |
| Ich habe eine Katze |
I have a cat |
"Einen" in this example, is the accusative form of the masculine singular indefinite article "ein". As you can see in the accusative form only the masucline article changes its form. We will later see, when studying the different cases, the declensions of the articles.
VOCABULARY
| Country |
Land (n) |
Airport |
Flughafen (m) |
| Region |
Region (f) |
Station |
Bahnhof (m) |
| Province |
Provinz (f) |
Port |
Hafen (m) |
| City |
Stadt (f) |
Underground |
U-Bahn (f) |
| Town |
Dorf (n) |
Park |
Park (m) |
| Street |
Strasse (f) |
Car Park |
Parkplatz (m) |
| Square |
Platz (m) |
Cinema |
Kino (n) |
| Avenue |
Allee (f) |
Theatre |
Theater (n) |
| Monument |
Denkmal (n) |
Restaurant |
Restaurant (n) |
| Fountain |
Quelle (f |
