A German noun has one of three specific grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and belongs to one of three declensions. These features remain unaltered by inflection but must be considered in this process. The grammatical gender influences articles, adjectives and pronouns. Note that gender and sex differ in many cases, as mentioned above.

Number (singular, plural) and case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive) must be taken into account in the process of declension.

The declension can be more difficult than in other languages such as Latin; not only the word ending, but also the root may be altered by inflecting. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

"Der Mann" - "Die Männer"

Some nouns only have a singular form (Singulariatantum); other nouns only have a plural form (Pluraliatantum):

"Das All", "Der Durst", "der Sand" (space, thirst, sand)

"Die Kosten", "die Ferien" (costs, the holidays)

Traps abound in both directions here; common singular-only words in English are not singular in German, and vice versa:

information = "Information", "die Information" (one tidbit of information)

"die Informationen" (the pieces of information)

the police are (pl.) = "die Polizei ist (sg.)"

Some words change their meaning when changing their number:

Geld (English, "money") - Gelder (English, "different sources of money")

Wein (wine) - die Weine (wines: meaning different kinds of wine)

A few words have two different plurals with distinct meanings. For example:

Wort (word) - Wörter (isolated words, as in five words) - Worte (connected, meaningful words, as in his last words)

Band - Bande (bonds) - Bänder (ribbons)

Types of declensions

General rules of declension

• Given the nominative singular, genitive singular, and nominative plural of a noun, it is possible to determine its declension.
• Note that in all feminine nouns, all singular forms are identical
• The dative plural of all nouns ends in -n if such an ending does not already exist, except that of nouns that form the plural with -s, which are usually loan words.
• Most nouns do not take declensions in the accusative or dative cases. A small class of mostly masculine nouns called "weak nouns" takes the ending -n or -en in all cases except the nominative.

A loanword (or a borrowing) is a word taken in by one language from another. ...

Declension classes

Irregular declensions

 Singular Plural Nominative der Herr die Herren Accusative den Herrn die Herren Dative dem Herrn den Herren Genitive des Herrn der Herren 

 Singular Plural Nominative das Herz die Herzen Accusative das Herz die Herzen Dative dem Herz(en) den Herzen Genitive des Herzens der Herzen 

Many foreign nouns have irregular plurals, for example:

 -s, -en das Thema, des Themas, die Themen -0-, -en der Kommunismus, des Kommunismus, (die Kommunismen) -s, PL das Thema, des Themas, die Themata -0-, PL der Uterus, des Uterus, die Uteri 

See also

• German grammar