The German genitive case is used to indicate possession or ownership. In spoken German, the genitive is often seen as formal or old-fashioned, and is frequently replaced with the preposition von + dative.
Unlike English, where the possessive construction comes before the noun (e.g. my father’s car), in German the genitive construction usually comes after the noun it refers to. For example:
Hier ist das Auto meines Vaters – Here is my father’s car
Of all four German cases, the genitive case has the most endings. These affect both the articles and the noun itself, replacing the apostrophe-'s' used in English.
Article | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
---|---|---|---|---|
Definite | des Mannes | der Frau | des Kindes | der Tiere |
Indefinite | eines Mannes | einer Frau | eines Kindes | – Tiere |
Negative | keines Mannes | keiner Frau | keines Kindes | keiner Tiere |
Possessive | meines Mannes | meiner Frau | meines Kindes | meiner Tiere |
Note: Masculine and neuter nouns usually take an -es or -s ending. One-syllable nouns often take -es, while longer ones typically use -s.
The following prepositions always trigger the genitive case, regardless of sentence position:
Preposition | Definition |
---|---|
trotz | despite |
während | during |
wegen | because of |
(an)statt | instead of |
Here are a few example sentences using the genitive case:
Download our Best Learn German App