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The weak declination

Moderators: MoniqueMaRie, Cifi

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SweNedGuy
Belgium

The weak declination

Post by SweNedGuy »

Die schwache Deklination (oder n-Deklination).

Anybody having learnt Latin knows that there are several declinations. Here I would like to pinpoint to the weak declination of nouns in German. Weak nouns are mainly used for male persons (something for the ladies to laugh at). A typical example: Der Junge. In the accusative/dative: den Jungen/dem Jungen. All plural cases are also 'Jungen'.

Some other nouns are weak e.g.

  • der Name, der Zeuge,
  • der Kommilitone (another one from the DL course)

There is only one neutral weak noun: das Herz.
Ich trage dich im Herzen. Freely: You're in my heart.

You find more on : https://mein-deutschbuch.de/n-deklination.html

Speaking :netherlands: :fr: :uk: :es: Learning :de:(B2-) :it:(B1) Image :sweden: :portugal: Image (A)

Cifi

Re: The weak declination

Post by Cifi »

Being a native speaker, I wasn't really aware of this difference.

It seems to happen with most masculine nouns ending in -e, doesn't it?

Der Löwe - siehst du den Löwen?

Der Affe - siehst du den Affen?

Der Wille - gegen meinen Willen

Not all though, at least one behaves different, and possibly more.

Der Käse - magst du den Käse?

Native: :de: Intermediate: :uk: Lower intermediate: :es: Beginner: :fr: Absolute beginner: 🇬🇷
(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

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SweNedGuy
Belgium

Re: The weak declination

Post by SweNedGuy »

Prior to 1934, Dutch used to have cases and also weak nouns. There are some petrified composite words where these are still visible. Nowadays, most people mistake it for a plural instead of a genitive of a weak noun. Two examples with a German cognate added (which may be unusual or sound awkward).

Hartendief (Herzendieb)
Gravensteen (Grafenstein)

Speaking :netherlands: :fr: :uk: :es: Learning :de:(B2-) :it:(B1) Image :sweden: :portugal: Image (A)

Cifi

Re: The weak declination

Post by Cifi »

What happened in 1934 that introduced the change, would you know?

Native: :de: Intermediate: :uk: Lower intermediate: :es: Beginner: :fr: Absolute beginner: 🇬🇷
(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

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