Possessive, indefinite, and negative articles in the genitive
When tracing your family roots or discussing historic heirlooms, you will often need to express who things belong to. You have already used the definite articles des and der for the genitive case. Other articles — such as the indefinite ein, the negative kein, and possessives like mein and dein — take the exact same genitive endings.
Feminine and plural nouns
For feminine and plural nouns, the article takes the ending -er (such as einer, meiner, deiner, or unserer). Feminine and plural nouns themselves do not take an extra ending.
Masculine and neuter nouns
For masculine and neuter nouns, the article takes the ending -es (such as eines, meines, or keines). Just as with the definite article, the masculine or neuter noun itself gets an -s or -es ending.
Relative pronouns in the accusative (plural)
You can use a relative clause to add more information about a noun. When referring back to a plural noun (like die Dokumente or die Geschichten), the relative pronoun is die.
If the relative pronoun acts as the direct object inside its relative clause, the accusative form remains die. Because relative clauses are subordinate clauses, the conjugated verb is always pushed to the very end of the phrase.
Putting it all together
As you describe your ancestors or talk about different generations, you can apply these genitive rules to any masculine, neuter, feminine, or plural noun.
Once you are comfortable with both concepts, you can easily combine them to share more details about your family's history!
