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Words for objects without obvious masculine or feminine characteristics like 'bridge' or 'rock' can be masculine or feminine. 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).
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 genitive plural, however is hjartna showing a-breaking instead of u-breaking. Some borrowings may exhibit similar behaviour, e.g, singular drama, plural drömu. Most of these are words for organs. An almost exhaustive list of neuter weak nouns follows: auga (eye) bjúga (a type of sausage) eista (testicle) eyra (ear) hjarta (heart)
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.
Latin -tia in neuter plural nouns may be retained, but is also Germanized orthographically and morphologically to -zien : Ingrediens 'ingredient', plural Ingredienzien; Solvens 'expectorant', plural Solventia or Solvenzien. In loan words from the French language, spelling and accents are usually preserved.
The weak inflection is used when there is a definite word in place (der [die, das, des, den, dem], jed-, jen-, manch-, dies-, solch-and welch-). The definite word has provided most of the necessary information, so the adjective endings are simpler. The endings are applicable to every degree of comparison (positive, comparative, and superlative).
The bare infinitive, when used as a noun, has no plural (or if it does it is invariable, i.e. identical to the singular), and its gender is neuter. arbeiten ‘to work’ – das Arbeiten ‘working’ Note: die Arbeiten is not the plural of the verbal noun Arbeiten, it is the plural of the feminine noun die Arbeit. Example for the plural