How to use indefinite articles in German?

In German, we use indefinite articles much like you would use “a” or “an” in English — to introduce a nonspecific or unfamiliar nounNo definition set for nounLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum..

Imagine seeing a tiger running down the street. What would you do? In German, you’d yell “Ein Tiger!”, using the indefinite article ein. Why? You don’t know that tiger or where it came from, so it’s unfamiliar.

In English, the indefinite article has only two forms, “a” or “an,” but in German indefinite articles have several different forms, like ein, eine, or einen. Keep reading and learn how to always pick the correct form!

The German indefinite article can take several forms, depending on the case and gender of the noun:

Like in English, we don’t use German indefinite articles before plural nouns (unless they’re negative!)

• Gender → You might already know that German nouns are differentiated by grammatical gender. A noun’s grammatical gender can be either masculine, feminine, or neuter.

• Case → In German, a noun’s “case” is determined by its grammatical role in the sentence. The most common uses are summarized below, but these descriptions will not cover every case

  • Nominative case → for the subject

  • Accusative case → for the direct objectNo definition set for direct objectLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

  • Dative case → for an indirect object

  • Genitive case → for possessors

Notice, in the example below, how the indefinite article changes form depending on whether the noun is the subject or the direct object:

• indefinite articlesubject (nominative)

  Ein Tiger rennt über die Straße.

  A tiger is running across the street.

• indefinite articledirect object (accusative)

  Ich sehe einen Tiger.

  I’m seeing a tiger.

The best way to learn the indefinite articles in German is to remember that the indefinite articles consist of a dictionary form, ein, and sometimes one of five endings: -e, -n, -m, -r, -s. These are all the forms you will need:

Notice that you need to insert an -e- before the endings -r, -n, -m and -s. This aids the pronunciation by avoiding unpronounceable forms like ❌einm.

To remember which form to use when, you can again use the mnemonic that we introduced in our post on German definite articles:

However, as we saw for a couple of other forms (e.g. German possessive adjectives), for indefinite articles we need to change the mnemonic a little bit to look more like this:

Each section of the mnemonic represents one row (case) in the “table.” Remember you won’t need the last letter in each group, because there are no plural indefinite articles in German!

Here are a couple more hints to help you remember the forms:

• In the nominative, dative, and genitive cases, masculine and neuter indefinite articles are identical.

• For the feminine indefinite article you only need to remember two endings: -E and -R.

Take a look at the additional examples of the indefinite articles used in sentences below. We will see how the articles change by using the feminine noun die Katze(the cat), the masculine nouns der Vogel(the bird) and der Hund(the dog), and the neuter nouns das Pferd(the horse) and das Kind(the child).

In most cases, German uses the word nicht(not) for negation, but you can’t use nicht in front of an indefinite article. Instead, the indefinite article itself has a special negative form. It’s easy-peasy: just add the letter k- to the start of any form of the indefinite article!

Take a look at these examples with a negated noun and an indefinite article:

• Subject:

  feminine

  Keine Katze kann diese Maus fangen.

  No cat can catch this mouse.

• Direct object:

  masculine

  Ich sehe keinen Hund.

  I don’t see a dog.

• Direct object (plural):

  plural

  Ich sehe keine Tiere hier.

  I don’t see animals here.

• Indirect object:

  neuter

  Ich will keinem anderen Kind meine Bonbons geben.

  I want to give my candy to no other child.

• Genitive attribute:

  plural

  Der Akku keines Handys hält länger als eine Woche.

  The battery of no cell phone stays charged for more than a week.

In this article, we’ve seen:

• Indefinite articles are used to identify one possible instance of a noun.

• The German indefinite articles are formed by combining the dictionary form, ein, with (sometimes) an ending which shows the case and gender of the noun.

• The mnemonic _E_E — NE_E — MRMN — SRSR helps with remembering the endings of the indefinite article forms.

• Negate the indefinite article by adding the letter k- at the beginning.

Ready to use what we have discussed? We have created some German indefinite article exercises for you to practice! Happy learning!