We're excited to announce that Nina Freebird of Vocal Creations Berlin has just published "Introducing Articles", a new Newbie level German language lesson, on Language Mentor! 

Lesson Script

Introducing Articles
Artikel Einführen

Definite Articles
In this lesson we introduce the German definite and indefinite articles. Definite articles are words like "the", i.e. words that refer to some specific thing. In German we use three different definite articles: "der" for masculine nouns, "die" for feminine nouns, and "das" for neuter nouns. Let's look at some examples.

The dog
Der Hund

The cat
Die Katze

The car
Das Auto

Indefinite Articles
Indefinite articles are words like "a", i.e. words that refer to a non-specific thing. In German we use "ein" for masculine and neuter nouns and "eine" for feminine nouns. Here are some examples:

A dog
Ein Hund

A cat
Eine Katze

A car
Ein Auto

The Plural Article
For plural nouns we only use one definite article, the article "die". Here are some examples:

The dogs
Die Hunde

The cats
Die Katzen

The cars
Die Autos

Practice with Sentences
Now let's practice these articles in simple sentences.

The dog barks.
Der Hund bellt.

A dog barks.
Ein Hund bellt.

The dogs bark.
Die Hunde bellen.

The woman comes.
Die Frau kommt.

A woman comes.
Eine Frau kommt.

The women come.
Die Frauen kommen.

The child cries.
Das Kind weint.

A child cries.
Ein Kind weint.

The children cry.
Die Kinder weinen.

The ball rolls.
Der Ball rollt.

A ball rolls.
Ein Ball rollt.

The balls roll.
Die Bälle rollen.

The mother cooks.
Die Mutter kocht.

A mother cooks.
Eine Mutter kocht.

The mothers cook.
Die Mütter kochen.

The bicycle parks.
Das Fahrrad parkt.

A bicycle parks
Ein Fahrrad parkt.

The bicycles park.
Die Fahrräder parken.

The father laughs.
Der Vater lacht.

A father laughs.
Ein Vater lacht.

The fathers laugh.
Die Väter lachen.

The cat jumps.
Die Katze springt.

A cat jumps.
Eine Katze springt.

The cats jump.
Die Katzen springen.

The car stands still.
Das Auto steht still.

A car stands still.
Ein Auto steht still.

The cars stand still.
Die Autos stehen still.

The fish swims.
Der Fisch schwimmt.

A fish swims.
Ein Fisch schwimmt.

The fish swim.
Die Fische schwimmen.

The family sings.
Die Familie singt.

A family sings.
Eine Familie singt.

The families sing.
Die Familien singen.

The house stands.
Das Haus steht.

A house stands.
Ein Haus steht.

The houses stand.

Die Häuser stehen. 


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Creative Commons License

This article and the lesson that it presents are both licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.