About Determiners and Articles

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Determiners come before nouns, usually directly before the noun or with an adjective between the article and the name. Examples are "this", "my", "her", "our" etc. An important sub-class of Determiner are Articles.

Articles are the words "a", "an" and "the".

There are two types of Article

Direct Article - referring to a particular object or person.  - "The"

Indirect Article - referring to an object or person in a less defined way - "A" or "An"

In German the article depends on the gender and case of the noun.

The definite article can be "der", "die", "das", "den", "dem" or "des".
The indefinite article can be "ein", "eine", "einer", "eines", "einem" or "einen"

There are different rules for the definite article and the indefinite article. These rules also determine the ending of any adjective. The other determiners follow the rule for either the definite or the indefinite article. As usual there is no logic regarding which determiners follow which rule. Thus "Mein Auto" refers to a particular object but it follows the rules for the indefinite article "Ein Auto". If there is no determiner then there is a third rule to establish adjective ending based on case and gender.

For a list of common determiners, which rule they follow and their English translations, click here Ü.

In the Basic Calculator, only the definite article, the indefinite article or no article can be selected. In the Advanced Calculator a wider range of determiners can be selected from a list.

Determiners and Gender Options

Some determiners will also affect the "Gender" options in the calculator. The determiner "jede" ("every") can only be associated with a noun in the singular form, while "alle" ("all") and "mancher" ("some") can only be associated with a noun in the plural form.