Der Genitiv klingt für mich formeller, doch im Wörterbuch sehe ich ihn oft.

Genitiv is a masculine noun in German, so its nominative singular article is der.

The names of the four traditional cases are all masculine:

• der Nominativ
• der Genitiv
• der Dativ
• der Akkusativ

So Der Genitiv simply means the genitive.

Because it is a noun. In German, all nouns are capitalized, not just proper names.

So in this sentence:

• Genitiv = noun
• Wörterbuch = noun

That is why both begin with a capital letter.

Not necessarily. Klingen often means to sound in the sense of to seem when heard or described.

So Der Genitiv klingt für mich formeller means something like:

• The genitive sounds more formal to me
• The genitive seems more formal to me

It is about the speaker’s impression, not about actual physical sound.

Formeller is the comparative form of formell.

• formell = formal
• formeller = more formal

So the sentence means the genitive sounds more formal than something else that is understood from context, even though that comparison is not stated explicitly.

German often uses the comparative without saying exactly what it is being compared to.

Because German does not always need to state the second part of the comparison.

If you say:

• Der Genitiv klingt formeller.

it can still mean The genitive sounds more formal even without saying than X.

If the speaker wanted to make the comparison explicit, they could say something like:

• Der Genitiv klingt formeller als der Dativ.

But here the comparison is left implied.

Für mich literally means for me, but in this kind of sentence it often corresponds to English to me or in my view.

So:

• Der Genitiv klingt für mich formeller

means:

• The genitive sounds more formal to me
• In my opinion, the genitive sounds more formal

It marks the statement as a personal impression.

Here doch means something like but, however, or and yet.

So the sentence contrasts two ideas:

• the genitive sounds more formal to the speaker
• but the speaker still sees it often in the dictionary

In this sentence, doch works a lot like aber. German doch has several other uses in other contexts, but here it is simply a contrast word.

Because doch is connecting two main clauses here, and a comma is used before it in this kind of contrastive connection.

The two clauses are:

• Der Genitiv klingt für mich formeller
• doch im Wörterbuch sehe ich ihn oft

So the comma helps separate the two complete thoughts.

Because this is still a main clause, and German main clauses normally follow the verb-second rule.

In the second clause:

• im Wörterbuch is in the first position
• sehe is the finite verb, so it must come second

That gives:

• doch im Wörterbuch sehe ich ihn oft

If this were a subordinate clause introduced by a subordinating conjunction, then the verb would move to the end. But doch here is not doing that.

Yes. Im is the contraction of in dem.

• in dem Wörterbuch → im Wörterbuch

This is extremely common in German.

So:

• im Wörterbuch = in the dictionary

Because im uses the dative and describes location, while ins uses the accusative and usually suggests movement into something.

Here the meaning is in the dictionary as a location, not into the dictionary.

So:

• im Wörterbuch = in the dictionary
• ins Wörterbuch = into the dictionary

Since the speaker is talking about where they see something, im is the correct choice.

Ihn refers back to der Genitiv.

Because Genitiv is masculine, its pronoun can be:

• er in the nominative
• ihn in the accusative
• ihm in the dative

Here the verb sehen takes a direct object in the accusative, so the sentence uses ihn:

• ich sehe ihn

That means:

• I see it / him

In this sentence, it = the genitive.

Yes, sehen normally takes an accusative object.

Examples:

• Ich sehe den Mann.
• Ich sehe das Haus.
• Ich sehe ihn.

So once der Genitiv is replaced by a pronoun, the accusative form is needed:

• der Genitiv → ihn

Oft is an adverb of frequency, and in German these adverbs often come later in the clause, especially after the object in a simple sentence like this.

So:

• im Wörterbuch sehe ich ihn oft

is a very natural order.

German word order with adverbs is flexible, but this version sounds normal and idiomatic.

It can often be understood in a fairly general way, depending on context.

German sometimes uses the singular with the article in places where English might also use a generic expression:

• im Wörterbuch = in the dictionary

In context, this can mean:

• in a particular dictionary
• in dictionaries / in dictionary entries generally

So the exact sense depends on the situation, but the grammar itself is completely normal.

Yes. Aber would also be possible here:

• Der Genitiv klingt für mich formeller, aber im Wörterbuch sehe ich ihn oft.

That would mean almost the same thing. In this sentence, doch sounds a little more polished or literary to some speakers, but both are natural.