German uses articles before nouns. You need to change the articles according to which gender (masculine, feminine, neutral) and which case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive) it is used in. Lastly, it also depends on the number (singular vs. plural). Luckily, all genders are the same in the plural, which gives it 4 categories (masculine, feminine, neutral and the plural).
Within these categories there are several types of articles:
The zero article is quite rare in the singular, but occurs frequently in the plural.
In fact, In the plural, the indefinite article and the “zero” article” coincide. In other words, there is no indefinite article in the plural.
| maskulin | feminin | neutral | Plural | |
| NOMINATIV | der Mann ein Mann kein Mann Mann | die Frau eine Frau keine Frau Frau | das Kind ein Kind kein Kind Kind | die Häuser Häuser keine Häuser |
Examples:
| Der Mann hat einen Hund. | Subjekt ► Nominativ |
| Der Mann hat einen Hund. | haben +Akkusativ |
| Er geht mit dem Hund spazieren. | mit +Dativ |
| Der Name des Hundes ist Lewis. | Genitiv |
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