Everyday Life

German Genitive Case

When is the Genitive Case used?

The genitive case is used to show that something belongs to someone. This is a person, animal or thing which is the owner. In this case, you will be able to ask: Whose...?

For example:
The girl's handbag is yellow. ⇨ Whose handbag is yellow?
I like the colour of your dress. ⇨ Whose colour do I like?

The genitive case is also used after certain prepositions. These are:

außerhalb (outside)
infolge (as a result of)
innerhalb (within, inside)
um…willen (for...sake, because of)

Example sentences:
Das Schloss ist außerhalb der Stadt. ⇨ The castle is outside the town.
Infolge des schlechten Wetters kam es zu Stromausfall. ⇨ As a result of bad weather, there was a power cut.
Bitte zahlen Sie die Rechnung innerhalb der nächsten fünf Tage. ⇨ Please pay the bill within five days.
Ich mache es um seinetwillen. ⇨ I'll do it for his sake.

There are four more prepositions that are genitive but can also be used in the dative case. These prepositions are:

anstatt (instead of)
trotz (in spite of)
während (during)
wegen (because of)

Here is an example sentence in the genitive case:
Während des Sommers spielte ich viel Fußball. ⇨ I played a lot of football during the summer.

You could also say the same sentence in the dative case:
Während dem Sommer spielte ich viel Fußball.

Tip
With these sentences, it's best to stick to the one you feel most comfortable with.

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Articles in the Genitive Case

Let's have a look at how the definite and indefinite article will change in the genitive case according to the gender:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Definite Article	des Mannes	der Frau	des Hauses
Indefinite Article	eines Mannes	einer Frau	eines Hauses
	des Lehrers		des Mädchens
	eines Lehrers		eines Mädchens

Note that masculine and neuter nouns generally add an extra -s to their ending in the genitive case.

For example:
der Lehrer ⇨ des Lehrers
das Mädchen ⇨ des Mädchens

And an -es is added to most masculine and neuter nouns of one syllable ending in a consonant.

For example:
der Mann ⇨ des Mannes
das Pferd ⇨ des Pferdes

Example sentences:
Das Auto des Mannes ist schwarz. (The man's car is black.) ⇨ Whose car is black? ⇨ des Mannes
Das Hufeisen des Pferdes ist kaputt. (The horseshoe of the horse is broken.) ⇨ Whose horseshoe is broken? ⇨ des Pferdes
Das ist die Telefonnummer eines Freundes. (This is the phone number of a friend.) ⇨ Whose telephone number is that? ⇨ eines Freundes
Die Schwester einer berühmten Schauspielerin ist gestern Abend gestorben. (The sister of a famous actress died last night.) ⇨ Whose sister died? ⇨ einer Schauspielerin

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Possessive Adjectives in the Genitive Case

The possessive adjectives also change in the genitive case. Here is a table:

Table: Possessive Adjectives

Possessive Pronoun	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
mein	meines	meiner	meines	meiner
dein	deines	deiner	deines	deiner
sein / ihr / sein	seines / ihres	seiner / ihrer	seines / ihres	seiner / ihrer
unser	unseres	unserer	unseres	unserer
euer	eures	eurer	eures	eurer
ihr / Ihr	ihres / Ihres	ihrer / Ihrer	ihres / Ihres	ihrer / Ihrer

As you can see, the masculine and neuter all end in -es while all feminine and plural ones end in -er. Let's go through some example sentences:

Das ist die Halskette seiner Mutter. (That's his mum's necklace.) ⇨ Whose necklace is this? ⇨ seiner Mutter
Die Farbe deines Lippenstiftes ist sehr schön. (The colour of your lipstick is very pretty.) ⇨ Whose colour is pretty? ⇨ deines Lippenstiftes
Sie benutzt immer das Parfüm ihrer Freundin. (She always uses her friend's perfume.) ⇨ Whose perfume does she always use? ⇨ ihrer Freundin
Das sind die Haargummis unserer Tochter. (These are our daughter's hairbands.) ⇨ Whose hairbands are these? ⇨ unserer Tochter

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Adjectives in the Genitive Case

The endings of adjectives change in the genitive case too. Their endings change based on the gender and quantity of the noun it's describing. However, in the genitive case, the ending is almost always -en. The only situation where the ending isn't -en is when the adjective is describing feminine and plural nouns and there is no article before the adjective. When this happens, the ending is -er. Here is a full table:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Definite Article	-en	-en	-en	-en
Indefinite Article	-en	-en	-en	-en
No Artcile	-en	-er	-en	-er

Example sentences:
Ich kann das Ladegerät des neuen Handys nicht finden. ⇨ I can't find the charger of the new phone.
Das Haus eines alten Freundes wurde verkauft. ⇨ The house of an old friend was sold.
Die Hilfe guter Freunde ist wichtig. ⇨ The help of good friends is important.

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Relative Pronouns in the Genitive Case

And last but not least we'd like to look at the relative pronouns. If you're a bit unsure on how these normally work, check out the Education Module in level A2. Here is a table of them in the genitive case:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Relative Pronoun	dessen	deren	dessen	deren

As you can see, all masculine and neuter nouns take dessen in a relative clause while all feminine and plural nouns are deren. Let's see them in action with these example sentences:

• Schauen wir mal, ob Oliver, dessen Zimmer hoffentlich ordentlicher ist, saubere Unterwäsche hat. ⇨ Let's see if Oliver, whose room will hopefully be tidier, has clean underwear.

Dessen is the relative pronoun for the neuter gender and refers to the neuter noun das Zimmer in the main clause.


• Ist das die Frau, deren Armbanduhr gestohlen wurde? ⇨ Is that the woman whose watch was stolen?

Deren is the relative pronoun for the feminine gender and refers to the feminine noun die Frau in the main clause.