32
votes
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Is the genitive used at all in everyday German?
In my opinion:
Yes, you should learn about the genitive.
While it's use apparently is on the decline and there are many "substitutions", you should not expect it to disappear totally in the next ...
- 23.6k
29
votes
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Could someone explain how to form the genitive partitive in German? (Einer meiner wording)
männlich:
Nominativ
Einer meiner Söhne ist im Haus.
One of my sons is in the house.
Genitiv
Das ist das Haus eines meiner Söhne.
This is the house of one of my sons.
Dativ
Dieses ...
- 110k
22
votes
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What kind of construction is "eine Tasse Kaffee"?
Eine Tasse Kaffee
is a cup of coffee in English. Where most languaguages use a partitive genetive German has a special construction nominative + nominative. The first noun describes the quantity a ...
- 7,732
20
votes
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Genitive ending of proper nouns ending in "s" or "z"
As presumed in the question the "normal" genitive-"s" would look strange (Larss Buch, Fritzs Haus). So the official rules (§ 96.1) and also rule 16 at Duden Sprachwissen say, that ...
- 11.4k
17
votes
"Ich sehn' mich nach der Isar Strand." — Why not "dem"?
Short answer
Ich sehn' mich nach der Isar Strand.
Here, der Isar is a so-called preposed genitive that prececdes the dative noun Strand.
Long answer
Construction with dative
The phrase sich nach ...
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15
votes
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“Belange von Minderheiten” – why “von” and not a genitive?
1. »Von« + dative case is a substitute for genitive case
Very often it is possible to replace genitive case with »von« + dative case without changing the meaning:
Der Griff des Messers ist ...
- 110k
14
votes
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Why is it “des Lesens” instead of “der Lesen” for the Genitiv of Lesen
It seems you mixed up several concepts.
There is a feminine word die Lese (meaning the process of collecting, usually grapes for making wine). Its genitive plural is indeed der Lesen.
There is a ...
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13
votes
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Why 'der' in 'Danke der Nachfrage'?
Wie schon anderswo erklärt, kann „danken“ ein Dativ- und ein Akkusativobjekt haben, um auszudrücken, wem und wofür gedankt wird. Dort wo wir heute den Akkusativ benutzen, wurde laut Grimm (Punkt 3) im ...
- 18.5k
12
votes
Is the genitive used at all in everyday German?
The genitive is still being used, especially in more formal contexts. So if you want to learn German beyond a basic level, it is not possible to avoid it.
That being said, if you started to learn ...
- 424
12
votes
Is the genitive used at all in everyday German?
One should distinguish at least between adnominal, prepositional and adverbal Genitive here.
Genitive case as an indicator of possession is very common. This is a usage you know from English. For ...
- 859
12
votes
Ist "der Preis des Ripples" gutes Deutsch?
As Ripple is a (modern) kind of currency, the same rules should apply as for ordinary currencies, say dollar or birr.
A good expression in German is
Der Dollarkurs ist gesunken.
You also could ...
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12
votes
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Unterlassung des Genitivs "S"
Abkürzungen und Fremdwörter haben im Deutschen kunterbunte Deklinationsformen - sie lassen sich typischerweise nicht in eine der Deklinationsklassen einordnen. Vor allem Namen von Organisationen und ...
- 57k
12
votes
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Why is ‘eines’ used in the sentence ‘Eines gleich vorweg’?
Here eines is not genitive and not an article. Instead "eines" is a pronoun, and its neuter form is eines.
You can translate this sentence as
One thing right from the start ...
- 11.4k
11
votes
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Man erwartet eine Spur von Dativ in „zu dessen“. Wo ist sie? Warum erscheint nur da der Genitiv? Oder existiert „zu dessem“?
Der Dativ ist nur scheinbar verschwunden. Das sieht man, wenn man ein Adjektiv hinzufügt:
Der Fisch, zu dessen zartem Aroma der Wein einen gelungenen Kontrapunkt bildete, schmolz auf der Zunge wie ...
- 29.2k
11
votes
Why 'der' in 'Danke der Nachfrage'?
It is genitive, a verbal phrase and a ellipsis. The full sentence (with subject) is
Ich danke der Nachfrage
ich Subject
danke Prädikat
der Nachfrage Genitivobjekt
And here is the Word "danke"...
- 110k
11
votes
How to say ‘son of X’ in German?
The genitive of Andreas is Andreas’. Thus:
Ich bin Andreas' Sohn.
The non-genitive and most common solution would be
Ich bin der Sohn von Andreas.
though.
- 30.3k
11
votes
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Why not "Ende des Februars" instead of "Ende Februar"?
You use "Ende Februar" because you're referring to a point in time. That point of time only supports and specifies a statement, it's not the subject of that statement.
Ich glaube die Klausuren ...
- 136
11
votes
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`seine` oder `seiner`?
You are right to claim that erwerben calls for accusative case, and you are also right in stating that the accusative of seine Kenntnisse would be seine Kenntnisse. Seiner Kenntnisse is a genitive. ...
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10
votes
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Herkunft und Verwendung des Wortes „deren“
Yes, it's genitiv of "die" (singluar and plural). So you might say:
Alle, deren Muttersprache Deutsch ist, ...
Jack, dessen Muttersprache Deutsch ist, ...
Alice, deren Muttersprache Deutsch ist, ...
...
- 478
10
votes
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Do adjectives take strong declension when you have a person's name in genitive before it?
If you are talking about one knife, the first phrase
Jeffs graues Messer (one knife)
is correct. The second phrase cannot be interpreted as a singular. However, it is the correct plural form:
...
- 7,433
10
votes
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Ist es schlechter Stil, »wegen + {Eigenname}+s« zu schreiben?
Im Abschnitt Allein stehendes Nomen im Singular auf canoo.net heißt es: Unflektiert, wenn das Nomen nicht durch einen Artikel oder Adjektiv begleitet wird.
Das Gleiche findet man auch noch mal beim ...
- 38.4k
10
votes
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Ist „wessen bedarfst du“ richtig?
Wessen ist gewissermaßen die Genitiv-Form der Fragewörter wer bzw. was. Man kann also fragen:
Wessen bedürfen die neuen Gesetze?
Im Beispiel gibt es aber noch ein Substantiv (Voraussetzungen), auf ...
10
votes
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Worauf kann sich ein Relativsatz beziehen, wenn man doppelten Genitiv hat?
Rein grammatikalisch kann sich "weltberühmt" in der Tat auf jeden dieser Genetive beziehen. Der Satz ist in der Tat nicht eindeutig; wenn sich die Meinung nicht aus dem Zusammenhang ergibt, sollte man ...
- 18.8k
10
votes
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Double genitive in German (including a proper name)
In general, you can concatenate as many genitives as you like in German, say
Das ist eine Kopie der Partitur des ersten Klavierkonzerts des polnischen Komponisten Frederic Chopin.
But this works ...
- 10.4k
10
votes
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What difference is there between “Geschlechtes” and “Geschlechts”?
There are a lot of German nouns whose genitive have two different forms, typically one ending on -es and one on -s. This has historic and etymologic reasons.
The older form of the genitive which was ...
- 38k
10
votes
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Is this sentence from the »Süddeutsche Zeitung« correct?
The sentence is correct in its original form. Your second suggestion gives a wrong parsing. Your first suggestion is at least not wrong, probably also fully correct but nobody would actually say it ...
- 38k
10
votes
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der Meinung / der Ansicht sein: What is the case in these examples?
These are predicative genitives. This used to be a productive feature of several Indo-European languages and hence appears to be a very old phenomenon (Dal/Eroms 2014: 31). If you read even relatively ...
- 7,543
10
votes
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Genitive without an article
First, there's two possible places for genitive in your example sentence:
trotz is a preposition that rules the genitive, so vieler Jahre must be (and actually is) in genitive.
The second place that ...
- 57k
9
votes
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Why is "berauben" used with genitive noun?
I cannot provide an etymological reason for the cases the verb berauben rules. However, I have the feeling that the main cause lies in the prefix be-. Let's analyze the cases of berauben and rauben:
...
- 7,433
9
votes
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Why do some German dictionaries list the genitive case ending?
The genitive singular ending, together with gender and plural ending, provide strong, often definite information about all inflections of the noun.
Although there are four cases and two numbers, ...
- 9,013
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