📘 Grammatik · Unit 3 · 1/15

Genitiv

4 parts7 examples3 common mistakes

Example

Rule

The genitive shows possession and follows a group of prepositions that are especially important in written language.

Practise

This topic’s own test: 10 sets, 10 questions in each.Grammatik-Test →

Masculine and neuter nouns get -es or -s on the noun; feminine and plural only on the article. One-syllable words take -es, longer ones -s.

Genus	bestimmt	unbestimmt	Beispiel
maskulin	des Mannes	eines Mannes	das Auto des Mannes
feminin	der Frau	einer Frau	die Tasche der Frau
neutral	des Kindes	eines Kindes	das Spielzeug des Kindes
Plural	der Kinder	– Kinder	die Zimmer der Kinder

These prepositions are the most common reason to need the genitive at all — especially in e-mails, reports and official texts.

Präposition	Bedeutung	Beispiel
wegen	because of	wegen des Wetters
trotz	despite	trotz der Kosten
während	during	während der Sitzung
aufgrund	due to	aufgrund der Lage
innerhalb	within	innerhalb einer Woche
ausserhalb	outside	ausserhalb der Öffnungszeiten
statt	instead of	statt eines Anrufs

In speech you hear von almost always. In writing — and in the exam — the genitive is expected.

With personal names you simply add -s — without an apostrophe, unlike in English.

wegen dem Wetter wegen des Wetters

In writing, wegen requires the genitive.

das Auto des Mann das Auto des Mannes

Masculine and neuter additionally get -es/-s.

Ali's Auto Alis Auto

In German, there is no apostrophe before the genitive -s.

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