Nouns
Only the following nouns are declined according to case:
- Masculine weak nouns gain an -n (sometimes -en) at the end in cases other than nominative.
- The genitive case of other nouns of masculine or neuter gender is formed by adding -s (sometimes -es).
- Nouns in plural that do not already end in -n or -s (the latter found in loanwords) gain an -n in the dative case.
There is a dative singular marking -e associated with strong masculine or neuter nouns, e.g. der Tod and das Bad, but this is nearly obsolete in contemporary usage, with the exception of fossilized phrases, such as zum Tode verurteilt ("sentenced to death"), or titles of creative works, e.g. Venus im Bade ("Venus In The Bath").
Read more about this topic: German Declension
Famous quotes containing the word nouns:
“Children and savages use only nouns or names of things, which they convert into verbs, and apply to analogous mental acts.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“All the facts of nature are nouns of the intellect, and make the grammar of the eternal language. Every word has a double, treble or centuple use and meaning.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)