Generally speaking, the ‘s’ sounds which give many English sentences their rhythm seem to be absent from German.
With few exceptions, adding an -s in English transforms a single object into a plural. For example: “the girls bake cakes in their schools”.
In translating to German, the plural -s often becomes an -n or -en, as in Die Mädchen in den Schulen backen Kuchen – and German learners quickly adopt to sentences with a bit more staccato rhythm.
Until, that is, they suddenly come across a sentence like this – Das ist das Haus des Lehrers (“That’s the teacher’s house”) – in which nearly every word suddenly seems to end in an -s.
Welcome to the genitive.
What is the genitive case?
The genitive case (der Genitiv) is one of German’s four grammatical cases, alongside the nominative, accusative and dative.
Its main role is to express possession or close relationships between nouns, answering the question wessen? (“whose?”)
For example, das Auto meines Bruders means “my brother’s car” or, more literally, “the car of my brother”.
The genitive case is everywhere in German newspapers, books and formal documents. Mastering it will help you understand and express complex relationships and ideas with clarity.
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How does the genitive work?
In the genitive, the endings for articles and some nouns change.
The definite article ("the") for masculine and neuter nouns becomes des, while the nouns themselves typically add -s or -es at the end. In the examples shown above: meines Bruders (“of my brother”), or des Lehrers ("of the teacher").
There are a very small number of exceptions to this rule, including der Herr, der Bauer, der Nachbar, der Mensch and der Junge, which take -n / -en in the genitive, rather than -s / -es.
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The definite article for feminine and plural nouns becomes der, while the nouns themselves typically remain unchanged:
Das ist die Tasche der Frau
That is the woman’s bag
Das sind die Fotos der Frau
Those are the woman’s photographs
Indefinite articles ("a" and "an") also shift in the genitive: ein becomes eines for masculine and neuter, and eine becomes einer for feminine nouns.
Where and when is the genitive used?
Traditionally, the genitive is used to show possession or belonging between two nouns: das Auto meines Vaters (“my father’s car”).
The genitive also appears after certain prepositions, including:
Während (“during”): Während des Meetings machten wir Notizen (“During the meeting, we took notes”).
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Trotz (“despite”): Trotz der Kälte gingen sie spazieren (“Despite the cold, they went for a walk”).
Wegen (“because of”): Wegen des Verkehrs kam sie zu spät (“Due to the traffic, she arrived late”).
Innerhalb (“within”): Innerhalb einer Woche erhalten Sie Antwort (“You will receive an answer within a week”).
Außerhalb (“outside”): Sie wohnen außerhalb der Stadt (“They live outside the city”).
Genitive vs Dative
In formal writing, literature and academic texts, the genitive remains essential.
But in everyday spoken German, it’s frequently replaced by von plus the dative: das Auto von meinem Vater (“the car of my father”).
The same rule holds true for the above prepositions.
While using the genitive after these prepositions is ‘correct’ and should always be used in written German, many native speakers replace it with the dative in informal conversation, saying während dem Essen instead of während des Essens, for example.
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One to watch
One common mistake which English speakers often make in German is attempting to transfer the English possessive -‘s directly into German.
Bear in mind that mein Vaters Wagen (my father's car) is grammatically wrong. The correct form is der Wagen meines Vaters.
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