German Articles

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What are Articles? (Artikel)

In English, there are three articles: "a," "an," and "the." They tell you if we are talking about, for example, a specific tree ("the tree") or an unspecified tree ("a tree"). With "a" and "an," we have to use a different one depending on the beginning sound of the noun ("a tree" vs. "an apple").

In German, we are going to extend this a bit.

First, we include more things under the category "German Articles."

The different types of articles are:

Second, German Articles give more information than just specified noun or unspecified noun. They also tell you the noun's

German Articles - Der, die oder das? - Keine Ahnung?

Check out my lesson about the German Gender (Genus) if you want to know when you have to use the German articles "der", "die" and "das".


Go to lesson: der, die oder das?  - The German Gender

Learn Everything about German Articles in the following sub-lessons:

Bestimmter & Unbestimmter Artikel

Definite articles  (Bestimmte Artikel) are used when talking about specific nouns (like the English "the"), while indefinite articles (Unbestimmte Artikel) are used when talking about nouns in general (like the English "a" / "an"). Both need to be declined (changed) based on the noun's gender, number, and case.

Examples:
Definite Articles:der Mann“, „die Frau“, „das Kind“
Indefinite Articles: ein Mann“, „eine Frau“, „ein Kind“

German Articles: Bestimmter & Unbestimmter Artikel

Der Nullartikel

Most nouns come with an article, but there are exceptions where NO article in used. We call this the zero article (Nullartikel).

Example: „Dort stehen Autos.“ (No article before Autos)

German Articles: Nullartikel

Possessivartikel

Possessive articles tell you who or what the noun belongs to, like the English "my" or "his."

Example: „Das ist Anna. Ihre Katze spielt im Garten.“

German Articles: Possessivartikel

Negativartikel "Kein"

When we say negative article, we mean the word "kein" or its other forms (i.e. keine, keinen,...). It is used to negate nouns that have an indefinite article or no article.

Example: „Das ist kein Mann.“

German Articles: Negativartikel "kein"

Related Topics:

Entire lesson in German only: Artikel

More lessons about Articles include are:

You can find an overview of all topics under German Grammar.

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