Der Genitiv

The genitive case is used in German to express either:

• possession, ownership, belonging to or with:

Hier ist das Auto meines Vaters. Here is my father’s car.

Hast du die Freunde meiner Schwester gesehen? Did you see my sister’s friends?

• “of” in English, when referring to a part or component of something else:

Am Anfang des Kurses haben wir viel gelernt. We learned a lot at the beginning of the course.
Manche Seiten des Buches fehlen. Some pages of the book are missing.

• in addition, there are a handful of prepositions that require the genitive case:

anstatt (statt) -- instead of:

Anstatt eines Wagens haben sie ein Motorrad gekauft. Instead of a car they bought a motorcycle.

außerhalb -- outside of:

Der Park liegt außerhalb der Stadt. The park is outside of the city.

innerhalb -- inside of, within:

Sie sind innerhalb eines Tages angekommen. They arrived within a day.

trotz -- in spite of:

Ich gehe zur Party trotz meiner Erkältung. I’m going to the party in spite of my cold.

während -- during, in the course of:

Während der Party habe ich mich sehr schlecht gefühlt. During the party I felt very ill.

wegen -- because of:

Wir sind wegen des Wetters zu Hause geblieben. We stayed at home because of the weather.

You may occasionally see other genitive prepositions, such as diesseits (on this side of), jenseits (on that side of)
or dank (thanks to, due to), but in general the most common genitive prepositions -- and the only ones you’re
responsible for knowing -- are listed above.

The formation of the article in the genitive is fairly simple, as there are only two different endings (-es for
masculine and neuter, -er for feminine and plural). However, the genitive case is unusual in German because it
adds an ending not only to the articles, but to masculine and neuter nouns as well. This ending is -es for single-
syllable masculine and neuter nouns. When the noun is more than one syllable long, the ending is usually just -s.

masc neut fem pl

des Mannes des Buches der Frau der Blumen
meines Mannes meines Buches meiner Frau meiner Blumen
Although you aren’t required to learn them, the adjective endings for the genitive case are extremely easy:
masculine and neuter are always -en, feminine and plural are either -en (if there’s an article) or -er (with no
article):

with article without article (rare!)

masc die Frau des alten Mannes der Geschmack kalten Kaffees
fem der Sohn meiner jungen Schwester anstatt heißer Suppe
neut ein Zimmer innerhalb des großen Gebäudes trotz schlechten Wetters
pl die Augen der schwarzen Katzen wegen langer Tage

In addition, you may see the question word wessen: this is merely the genitive form of wer, and means “whose”. It
never has any other form or endings:

Wessen Auto ist das? Whose car is that?

Wessen Bücher liegen hier? Whose books are lying here?

Word of warning:
Your impulse may be to simply put an -s before a noun to indicate the possessive, as we do in English (my father’s
car). However, saying “mein Vaters Wagen” is not only incorrect in German, it is incomprehensible and makes no
sense at all. You must rephrase: “der Wagen meines Vaters”. If it helps to think of it as “the car of my father,”
that’s fine, since the meaning is the same as English “my father’s car.”

Remember that with personal names, you can simply add an -s to indicate the possessive. But when referring to
a common noun rather than a proper name, the genitive formation must be used:

Marias Freund heißt Thomas. Der Freund meiner Schwester heißt Thomas.
Hans’ Mutter ist nett. Die Mutter meines Freundes ist nett.
Wisconsins Hauptstadt ist Madison. Die Hauptstadt dieses Bundeslands ist Madison.

Alternate method:
The genitive case has been disappearing in German for some time now. It’s not ‘dead’ yet, but you won’t often
hear it in informal situations -- it’s mostly reserved for formal writing or elevated styles of speech. Instead of the
genitive to indicate possession, you will often hear the dative used with the preposition ‘von’:

das Haus meines Freundes = das Haus von meinem Freund

der Onkel meiner Mutter = der Onkel von meiner Mutter
die Namen der Kinder = die Namen von den Kindern

Genitivformen. Fill in the blanks with the genitive or possessive forms of the nouns indicated.

1. Ist das das Haus _________________________________________ (deine Schwester)?

Nein, das ist das Haus __________________________________________ (unsere Großeltern).
 2. Das ist die neue Freundin __________________________________________ (mein Bruder).
So! Das ist _________________________________ (Klaus) Freundin!

3. Ist das _________________________________ (Karin) Sohn?

Nein, das ist der Sohn _____________________________________ (mein Arzt).

B. Anders ausdrücken. Combine the information in the two sentences in just one sentence. You
will need to use genitive forms to say whose items they are. To make sure you’re clear on what
you’re doing, write an English translation for each result as well.

1. Dort sind die Schuhe. Die Schuhe gehören meiner Mutter.

Dort sind die Schuhe meiner Mutter. (=There are my mother’s shoes.)

2. Die Katze ist weggelaufen. Die Katze gehört meiner Eltern.

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3. Ich gehe zu dem Haus. Das Haus gehört meinem Freund.

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4. Ich kann das Buch nicht finden. Das Buch gehört meinem Bruder.
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5. Der Vater wohnt in Irland. Mein Freund ist sein Sohn.

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C. Und jetzt übersetzen. Now translate the English sentences into German. Remember that
you’ll have to use the genitive forms of the people involved! (These sentences should be
structured just like the results of section B.)

1. My sister’s husband is very nice.

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2. I went to my friend’s party.

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3. I don’t know your friends’ names.

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4. Is this your roommate’s computer?

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5. I’ve forgotten the teacher’s address.

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