Der- and Ein-words together make up a class of words called "limiting
words", because in some ways they "limit" the scope of the noun that
follows them. The presence or absence of a "limiting word" in an
adjectival phrase makes a big difference in the ADJECTIVE ENDING that
you will need!
Der words include:
- All the words for "the" : der, die, das, den, dem, des
- Plus: dies- , jen- , jed- , solch- , all- , manch- ,
welch-
Der words always have "endings". The words for "the" have the endings built into the word itself, the other der-words have theendings added at the end of the "root" (eg. "dies-") of the word. The endings for the various cases/genders are:
| |
Masc. |
Neut. |
Fem. |
Plural |
Nom. |
-er |
-(e)s |
-e |
-e |
Acc. |
-en |
-(e)s |
-e |
-e |
Dat. |
-em |
-em |
-er |
-en |
Gen. |
-es |
-es |
-er |
-er |
Dieser Mann ist
mein Vater. Mit welcher Frau sind Sie verheiratet?
Solche Leute würde ich lieber Vermeiden. Das Haus ist rot.
The Ein-words include:
- ein, kein
- Plus all possessives:
mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer, Ihr
| |
Masc. |
Neut. |
Fem. |
Plural |
Nom. |
NONE |
NONE |
-e |
-e |
Acc. |
-en |
NONE |
-e |
-e |
Dat. |
-em |
-em |
-er |
-en |
Gen. |
-es |
-es |
-er |
-er |
NOTICE: Ein words have the SAME ENDINGS as der words, except in the three cases where they have NONE: (Note the difference in the der word and ein word endings here:
Dieser Mann ist mein Vater. (both Masc./Nominative)
Das Haus ist wie ein Schloss. (both Neut./Nominative)
Ich liebe das Kind wie mein eigenes Kind. (both Neut./Accusative)
** It should be obvious then that constructions like "das ist einer Mann" or "ich sehe eines Kind" are IMPOSSIBLE constructions resulting from putting DER-Word endings on Ein-words!
* If you get the endings WRONG here, you will also invariably also get the ADJECTIVE ENDINGS wrong as well, so make sure you know this well!
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