German nouns are often preceded by an article.
The article indicates the case, number and gender of the noun it precedes.
There are definite and indefinite articles.
A definite article refers to an object or person whose identity is already known to the speaker or listener.
German has three classes of gender: masculine, feminine and neuter.
| Definite article | Noun | |||
| Masculine | der | Fahrer | ||
| Feminine | die | Katze | ||
| Neuter | das | Taxi |
|
Important note! |
More:
For all three genders - masculine, feminine and neuter - the definite article in the nominative plural is always "die".
German cases:
German has four cases.
The following chart shows the case of definite articles in the singular for all three genders.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |||
| Nominative | der | die | das | ||
| Accusative | den | die | das | ||
| Dative | dem | der | dem | ||
| Genitive | des | der | des |