N-Deklination (Complete Guide) (2024)

FAQs

What is an example of n deklination? ›

The term “n-declension” simply means we have to add the ending -(e)n to certain masculine nouns in all cases except the nominative singular. There are different groups: Male people and animals ending in -e: Junge (boy), Kollege (colleague), Kunde (customer), Löwe (lion), etc.

Remembering the endings of adjectives in German can be challenging. A helpful strategy is to practice with charts and tables that show the endings for each case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive) and gender (masculine, feminine, neuter, plural).

German noun declension involves paying attention to a noun's case, gender, and number. The German cases are nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. Nominative case means that a noun is a sentence's subject. Accusative case means that a noun is a sentence's direct object.

In nouns, "strong" refers to (masc and neuter) nouns that form their genitive with -s. This is in contrast to weak nouns (also known as n-declination nouns), which get an -en ending in all cases except nominative singular. Most German masc/neuter nouns are strong.

For example, if a toy belongs to one boy, the toy is the boy's toy, but if it belongs to two or more boys, it becomes the boys' toy. Both numbers of the noun have this word case, which is called the genitive case. Word case is when a word form changes depending on what part of the sentence it is.

The noun as the indirect object (dative case)

The dative case describes an indirect object that receives an action from the direct object in the accusative case or the subject. The dative case gives you more information about an action that took place. It talks about the recipient.

It's really all about the articles. The three types are as follows: Weak declension is used if the adjective follows a definite article (der/die/das). Strong declension is used if the adjective does not follow an article. Mixed declension is used after the indefinite article (ein/eine/ein).

Fourth declension is Latin's u-stem declension in which almost all the nouns are masculine in gender.

While many say that the German alphabet has 26 letters just like English, there are also four additional letters in the German language: ä, ö, ü and ß. If you count these, this brings the count up to 30 letters.

Regular verbs use the ending -t in the past participle and the endings -te, -test, -te, -ten, -tet, -ten for the simple past, whereas strong verbs take the ending -en for the past participle and have no endings in the first (ich) and third (er, sie, es) person singular in the simple past.

What are two nouns together in German? ›

A compound noun, “Nomenkompositum” or “zusammengesetztes Hauptwort” in German, is either made up of at least two other nouns, or different types of words and a noun to create a new noun. Examples are: Apfel + Baum = Apfelbaum (apple + tree = apple tree) Tisch + Decke = Tischdecke (table + blanket = tablecloth)

The /n/ nasal sound

The tongue rests at the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth, and you should feel a slight nose tickle as the air moves through the nasal passage. Words that use the /n/ nasal sound: nine, name, no, golden, nose, think, noon, when, and now.

Countable nouns can be counted, e.g. an apple, two apples, three apples, etc. Uncountable nouns cannot be counted, e.g. air, rice, water, etc. When you learn a new noun, you should check if it is countable or uncountable and note how it is used in a sentence.

To review, the term "N declension" means that there are certain mostly masculine nouns that have an "-n" or "-en" added to the end in all grammatical cases—except the nominative singular case.

The word statement is an example of a nominalization; statement is a noun that has been derived from the verb to state. Adjectives can become nouns, too; for example, the adjective negligent frequently gets converted to the noun negligence.