The ein/eine/ein (mixed) endings
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This set of endings is not quite so bland as the i rst, at least in the nom. and acc., but in the other cases and the plural the endings are identical to each other and to those applying in the set above. Again, there is a reason for this. Look at ein guter Mann and ein gutes Kind and compare this with der gute Mann and das gute Kind. The determiner ein here, unlike der and das, makes no distinction between the genders – only the adjective here tells you what the gender of the noun is. But in the genitive and dative cases, there is no difference between the endings in sets 1 and 2 as the determiners, both der/die/das and ein/eine/ein, indicate the gender and case, i.e. dem/einem guten Mann, der/einer guten Frau, dem/einem guten Kind. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The endings in this paradigm are applied after all the possessive adjectives as well as after kein. Of course you cannot get a plural noun after ein, but you can after all the other determiners in this group and thus there is a fourth column above, i.e. keine alten Leute. A person’s name with a gen. -s ending (see 4.4) standing before the adjective fuli ls the same function as a possessive adjective and thus these endings are required, e.g. Karls nagelneues Auto (Karl’s brand new car) The black lines drawn between the accusative and the genitive endings in sets 1 and 2 are intended to emphasize that below these lines, including the plural, these two sets of endings are identical. This greatly reduces what you need to learn by heart. It is only in the nominative and accusative that you have to be careful if a determiner precedes a noun, because in the other two cases and in the plural there is only one possible ending, i.e. -en. Remember this: a German noun with a determiner and an adjective in front of it can only grunt (rrr!) or hiss (sss!) once, i.e. der gute Mann/ein guter Mann and das gute Kind/ein gutes Kind. In other words der guter Mann and das gutes Kind are not possible – the system is more economical than this |
