Other Determiners - Possessive and Demonstrative

Determiners are words that modify nouns by indicating quantity, possession, or specificity.

In German, determiners include the definite article (der, die, das) and the indefinite article (ein, eine), both of which we have covered in earlier lessons.

In this lesson, we will go over the other types of determiners, namely possessive determiners, demonstrative determiners, interrogative determiners and indefinite determiners.

Like articles, determiners also agree with the noun they modify in gender, case, and number (singular/plural).

Possessive Determiners

Possessive determiners indicate ownership or association.

Person	Possessive
ich - I	mein - my
du - you informal	dein - your
er - he	sein - his
es - it	sein - its
sie - she	ihr - her
wir - we	unser - our
ihr - you plural	euer - your
sie - they	ihr - their
Sie - you formal	Ihr - your formal

Declension patterns for possessive determiners follow a pattern similar to the indefinite article:

ㅤ	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	mein	meine	mein	meine
Accusative	meinen	meine	mein	meine
Dative	meinem	meiner	meinem	meinen
Genitive	meines	meiner	meines	meiner

Examples:

Nominative: Mein Bruder ist Arzt. (My brother is a doctor.)

Accusative: Ich sehe meinen Bruder. (I see my brother.)

Dative: Ich gebe meinem Bruder ein Geschenk. (I give my brother a gift.)

Genitive: Das Auto meines Bruders ist neu. (My brother's car is new.)

Demonstrative Determiners

Demonstrative determiners point to specific objects and indicate their proximity. The most common are: dieser, diese, dieses (this/these) - for objects that are close

ㅤ	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	dieser	diese	dieses	diese
Accusative	diesen	diese	dieses	diese
Dative	diesem	dieser	diesem	diesen
Genitive	dieses	dieser	dieses	dieser

Examples:

Nominative: Dieser Mann arbeitet hier. (This man works here.)

Accusative: Ich kenne diesen Mann. (I know this man.)

Dative: Ich helfe diesem Mann. (I help this man.)

Genitive: Das Haus dieses Mannes ist groß. (This man's house is big.)

Interrogative Determiners

Interrogative determiners are used in questions to ask about specific nouns.

welcher, welche, welches (which)

was für ein/eine (what kind of)

ㅤ	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	welcher	welche	welches	welche
Accusative	welchen	welche	welches	welche
Dative	welchem	welcher	welchem	welchen
Genitive	welches	welcher	welches	welcher

Examples:

Nominative: Welcher Film ist dein Lieblingsfilm? (Which movie is your favorite?)

Accusative: Welchen Film hast du gesehen? (Which movie did you see?)

Dative: Mit welchem Film hat er einen Preis gewonnen? (With which movie did he win a prize?)

Genitive: Welches Buches Inhalt hast du gelesen? (Which book's content did you read?)

For "was für ein/eine" (what kind of), only "ein/eine" declines like the indefinite article:

Was für ein Auto fährst du? (What kind of car do you drive?)

Was für eine Musik hörst du gern? (What kind of music do you like to listen to?)

Indefinite Determiners

Indefinite determiners are used to refer to non-specific or unidentified nouns.

ㅤ	Examples	Meanings
Quantity	einige, manche, viele, wenige	some, some, many, few
Identity	jeder, alle, beide	each, all, both
Non-existence	kein, keine	no, none

Many indefinite determiners follow the same declension pattern as the definite article. Here's the declension pattern for "alle" (all):

ㅤ	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	aller	alle	alles	alle
Accusative	allen	alle	alles	alle
Dative	allem	aller	allem	allen
Genitive	alles	aller	alles	aller

Examples:

Nominative: Aller Anfang ist schwer. (All beginnings are difficult.)

Accusative: Ich sehe alle Fehler. (I see all mistakes.)

Dative: Mit allem Respekt muss ich widersprechen. (With all due respect, I must disagree.)

Genitive: Die Summe aller Teile ist größer als das Ganze. (The sum of all parts is greater than the whole.)

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While alle is more typically used in the plural (alle Kinder – all children), the singular forms (aller, alles, allem) are used mostly in certain formal or literary contexts.

Other examples:

Ich habe viele Bücher. (I have many books.)

Jeder Student muss eine Prüfung ablegen. (Every student must take an exam.)

Wir haben einige Ideen für das Projekt. (We have some ideas for the project.)