The Genitive Case
The genitive case is used to express possession or a relationship between two nouns. It is equivalent to using an apostrophe-s ('s) or the word "of" in English. In German, the possessor noun phrase usually comes directly after the noun it owns.
Indefinite Articles in the Genitive
To say "of a" or "a [noun]'s", the indefinite article ein changes its ending depending on the gender of the noun it modifies.
- Masculine and neuter nouns take the article eines. Crucially, you must also add an -s or -es to the end of the masculine or neuter noun itself.
- Feminine nouns take the article einer. Feminine nouns do not get an extra ending.
Possessive and Negative Articles
Possessive articles (like mein, dein, sein) and the negative article (kein) follow the exact same ending pattern as the indefinite article in the genitive case.
| Gender | Genitive Article Ending | Noun Ending |
|---|
| Masculine | -es (meines, keines) | -(e)s |
| Neuter | -es (meines, keines) | -(e)s |
| Feminine | -er (meiner, keiner) | (none) |
| Plural | -er (meiner, keiner) | (none) |
Notice in the examples below how the masculine noun Motor gets an -s, but the feminine noun Maschine stays exactly the same.
If a possessive article already ends in -er, such as unser (our) or euer (your, plural), it simply adds the required genitive ending. Note that euer drops its middle "e" when adding an ending, becoming eures or eurer.
For the formal "your", use the capitalized Ihr, which becomes Ihres or Ihrer.
Finally, here is an example using the negative article kein (no) in the neuter form, to express that "no model's" success is certain: