So, if we talk about the declension of nouns in the German language, we should first say about the features of the language itself. And there are a lot of them in this case.
Cases, male and female declensions
In this language of the Romano-Germanic group, there are four types of declensions of these independent parts of speech. They are divided into mixed (special), feminine, weak and, accordingly, strong. The main task is to determine the pattern in the declination process in each of the cases, of which there are four in German. Nominative (translated - Nominativ) answers questions such as “wer?” and “was?”. Genitive, which translates as Genetiv, to the question “wessen?”. It is followed by the dative, Dativ, “wem?”, “Wo?”, As well as the accusative, Akkusativ, “wen?”, “Was?”, “Wohin?”. Strong declension is determined by the ending of the “s” in the genitive case, this case includes most of the nouns that are masculine, as well as all belonging to the middle gender. The exception is the “heart” - Das Herz. If we talk about the weak declension of nouns in the German language, then in this case the sign will be the ending e (n) - applies to all cases. An exception is the nouns mr defining living things. The simplest case is with female declension - there are no endings.
Special Type and Plural
It was said that some of the features of the different German language. The declension of nouns of the previously mentioned mixed type refers to one of those. Only a few words are highlighted here, they should be listed and remembered! Das Herz (translated as “heart”), der Schaden (“damage”), der Frieden (translation - “Peace”, although there is a synonym for Welt, which changes according to all rules), der Wille (“Will”), der Same (“ seed "), der Glaube (" faith "), der Gedanke (translated as" thought ", but can be replaced by the synonym idea), der Funke (" spark "), der Buchstabe (" letter "), der Name (" name " ) The listed words have the following declension of nouns in German: on e (ns) they end in the genitive, and on e (n) - in the dative and accusative. Slightly easier to bow in the plural. Everything follows one rule: in Dativ, ending with n, with only one exception. If a noun is converted from units. h, then it receives the suffixes s or n.
On the power of declination
So, in this language, unlike Russian, there are only four cases. If we talk about declination, then it has three types by which words change. This is a strong declination, weak and mixed. If in German, then s-Deklination, n-Deklination and gemischte Deklination. Many nouns have no endings, only the article changes in the word. Almost all dative case words end in n, the same goes for female nouns. Although there is a feature. Nouns R. and vary by female decline. All singular forms are exactly the same as the nominative case, and the plural words end in any case on en.
The strong type has its own characteristics. The fact is that words of the middle as well as masculine gender tend to be of this type. It should be noted that the listed words in Nominativ have either a zero ending, or –er, -e. Weak declination has a distinctive feature in the form of –en endings. It stands in every form, with the exception of Nominativ. According to the weak type, masculine names change, ending in –loge, -ant, -e, -and, -ist, -af, etc. These are mainly words denoting professions, nationality and living beings.
How to remember
The declension of nouns in the German language is a complex topic. And it’s very important, because in order to speak normally, so that native speakers can understand the speaker, one must be able to change words according to declination. They will help you learn the topic “Declining nouns” exercises. The German language is very rich, so it will be easy to train. For this, you can create diagrams or tables with the endings and cases. Thus, two types of memory will work: visual and sound, and the memorization process will be much more productive The table can be compiled in this form (for example, the words “man”, “master”, “student”, “name” are taken):
N: der: Mensch, Herr, Student, Name.
A: den: Mensch (en), Herr (n), Student (en), Name (n).
D: dem: Mensch (en), Herr (n), Student (en), Name (n).
G: des: Mensch (en), Herr (n), Student (en), Name (ns).
Even based on such a simple example, one can see that learning and remembering from such a table is quite simple. The most important thing, as in any other language, is to find a pattern by which the memorization process will look logical and consistent.