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Words for objects without obvious masculine or feminine characteristics like 'bridge' or 'rock' can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. German nouns are declined (change form) depending on their grammatical case (their function in a sentence) and whether they are singular or plural. German has four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.
All German nouns are included in one of three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine or neuter. While the gender often does not directly influence the plural forms of nouns, [1] [2] there are exceptions, particularly when it comes to people and professions (e.g. Ärzte/Ärztinnen).
The grammar of the German language is quite similar to that of the other Germanic languages.Although some features of German grammar, such as the formation of some of the verb forms, resemble those of English, German grammar differs from that of English in that it has, among other things, cases and gender in nouns and a strict verb-second word order in main clauses.
German for Kids premiered in Berlin on November 28, 2011. [4] The publishing house Lingua-Video.com released the film on DVD-ROM – licensed for educational purposes – in addition with 9 educational short films and a comprehensive study guide in November, 2011. [5]
German has many more weak nouns than English; for example, Bär (pl. Bären) "bear", Name (pl. Namen) "name", Held (pl. Helden) "hero". Some nouns such as the neuter noun Auge (pl. Augen) have a mixed inflection, being strong in the singular but having the characteristic -en plural ending of a weak noun.
Aal - eel; aalen - to stretch out; aalglatt - slippery; Aas - carrion/rotting carcass; aasen - to be wasteful; Aasgeier - vulture; ab - from; abarbeiten - to work off/slave away
The vowels of proto-Germanic and their general direction of change when i-mutated in the later Germanic dialects. Germanic umlaut is a specific historical example of this process that took place in the unattested earliest stages of Old English and Old Norse and apparently later in Old High German, and some other old Germanic languages.
German articles and pronouns in the genitive and dative cases directly indicate the actions of owning and giving without needing additional words (indeed, this is their function), which can make German sentences appear confusing to English-speaking learners.