ein, eine, einen, and einem in the German Language, all are more or less equivalent to the English indefinite article a/an. The root of each is the article ein.
However, they are all declined based on grammatical case and gender.
To be clear, “grammatical gender” has nothing to do with gender in the usual sense. It so happens that “masculine” gender is used for men and male professional titles, but that’s pretty much where the relationship between the two stops. A table is “male” and a book is “neuter” and insurance is “female” not because of physical gender, but for rather more complex reasons mostly having to do with how the plural is formed.
There are three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter, plus plural. There are four cases: nominative, dative, accusative, and genitive.
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Here is a table with the cases and genders for the definite article:
Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
Nominative | der | die | das | die |
Accusative | den | die | das | die |
Genitive | des | der | des | der |
Dative | dem | der | dem | den |
And here is the same table, but for the indefinite article:
Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
Nominative | ein | eine | ein | x |
Accusative | einen | eine | ein | x |
Genitive | eines | einer | eines | x |
Dative | einem | einer | einem | x |
Difference between ein, eine, einen, and einem in the German Language
ein means literally one and is translated as “a”. It is an article put before a noun. its also a pronoun. The German language has nouns with three genders
- masculine. ein
- feminine – eine
- neutral – ein
and it also has 4 Grammatical cases
- nominative (who? what? he, I, my son, “John” is singing. “A” bird is flying)
- genitive (whose? hers, my sons, “my mothers” dress is on the chair )
- dative (whom? what? I go with “him”…. I go to “a” friend… )
- accusative (who? what? I love “him”, I have “a” dress…)
German pronouns also have plural and singular, but this particular pronoun “ein” has only singular because it means “one”
einem and einen are other forms of the pronoun “ein” in different grammatical cases and noun genders
the letter “m” in “einem” is always a sign that its dative.
Grammatical cases:
1. masculine and neutral:
- ein (Das is “ein” Mann – This is “a man”)
- eines (Das is das Buche “eines” Kindes – This is the book of a child.)
- einem (Ich gehe zu “einem” Freund. I am going to a friend.)
- einen (Ich liebe “ein” Madchen. I love a girl.)
2. feminine
- eine (Das ist “eine” Frau. This is a woman.)
- einer (Da is das Buch “einer“ Frau. This is the book of a woman.)
- einer (Ich gehöre “einer” Frau. I belong to a woman.)
- eine (Ich hasse “eine” Frau. I hate a woman.)
There are particular verbs that are going with dative and accusative,
- dative: going to someone, belong to someone, give someone a present, say something to someone, be with someone, argue with someone, do something with someone.
- accusative: love someone, hate someone, hit someone, kill someone, forget someone, remember something, explaining/demonstrating/understanding something,
- possession, (i have a dress),
- relationships ( i love/hate/understand/defend someone)
- actions to someone or something ( i hit him. I carry the child. I water the flower.)
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