Do German NOUNS change their endings?

Question

I know things such as mein do, like meinem, meinen etc
And the case system is used to change der into den etc
But can nouns change their endings? and how?
Thank you

Answer 1

Yes they do.
In general:
Feminin nouns do not change their endings in singular
die Frau (Nom.) - der Frau (Gen.) - die Frau (Dat.) - die Frau (Akk.)
Masculin and neutral nouns change their endings in Genitiv (possessive case) by appending either -s, -es, in singular
der Hund - des Hundes - dem Hund - den Hund
der Bruder - des Bruders - dem Bruder - den Bruder
das Schwein - des Scheines - dem Schwein - das Schwein
das Auto - des Autos - dem Auto - das Auto
Masculin nouns ending with e change by appending "n" in all cases but Nominativ (subject case)
der Löwe - des Löwen - dem Löwen - den Löwen

these are only a few examples - there are certainly more rules and exceptions
In older texts e.g. you often find and appended "e" with dativ case (indirect object) but that's old fashioned and not used anymore -

In plural it gets more complicated I can't mention everything here so just an example:
Feminin nouns ending -er or -el append -n in Nom. Pl.
die Leiter (sg) - die Leitern (pl)
die Kartoffel - die Kartoffeln
Masculin and neutral nouns ending -er or -el don't append "n"
(exception: Vetter, Bauer, Muskel, Stachel und Pantoffel)
der Zügel - die Zügel
der Reiter - die Reiter
das Wiesel - die Wiesel
das Thermometer - die Thermometer
but
der Bauer - die Bauern
der Muskel - die Muskeln

you see, German nouns change their endings (or they don't) in plural sometimes the root changes as well.
der Bruder - die Brüder
der Zug - die Züge (root changes plus appended -e)

A grammar book will help, I guess

Answer 2

German Noun Cases

Answer 3

1. Male and neuter nouns take the ending "-es" in the genitive singular. The "e" is omitted if the noun ends in a vowel. In modern German it is often also omitted after plosives. Male and neuter nouns ending on "-e" e.g. der Rabe, der Knabe, das Harte normally belong to the weak declensions and take "n" as ending in the genitive singular. They also take an "-n" in the dative singular.
Female nouns don't change in the singular

In old texts you might find a dative ending "-e" for male and neuter nouns, but this is obsolete now, except in proverbs and idiomatic expressions "dem Manne kann geholfen werden"

2. Plural nominative forms are irregular and should ALWAYS be learned with the word. There are NO 100% rules.

3.Genitive Plural is usually the same as nominative plural for male and neuter words.
Female nouns usually take "-en", or "-n"

4. In dative plural words of all genders USUALLY (not always)
take "-en" or "-n" as ending (unless they end in "n" already). The exceptions are mainly borrowed words from other languages ending in a vowel and/or building their nominative plural with "-s". These don't change for any case.

All these rules are bound to have exceptions - it's German we're talking about - but you a 90% chance there ;-)

Answer 4

What has been said is correct as far as it goes. German nouns change according to singular and plural, but also according to case. It is true that the posessive or genitive is the most common, but at any rate in written form nouns can have accusative (ie object) forms and even dative forms can be used although they seem to be optional these days. But one can write (or maybe must write) zu welchem Zwecke, to what end, and the e is a dative ending. In a word like Junge (boy) you have to use Jungen in the singular for the object (accusative), the posessive form (the genitive) and the indirect object (the dative). eg Ich habe das Buch dem Jungen gegeben, I have given the book to the boy. Any old-fashioned grammar will tell you all about this.

Answer 5

Yes, they do. However not all of them and only in some cases. As a rule a noun in german doesn't need to change it's ending - which is a common form to show the case and thus destinguish the specific meaning in the sentence - because this role takes the article or the adjective. But still there are three types of declination: strong, weak and female and a small group of exceptions. The declination of all these types differs only in singular. In plural the rule is simular for all the nouns - they get the ending -(e)n in dative case except for the nouns that already have suffix -(e)n or -s. In singular all nouns of female gender belong to the female declination type and have no ending, nouns of strong decl. (most masculine and neuter) get the ending -(e)s in genitive case and a special group of masculine, that makes the weak declination type, has the ending -(e)n in all cases except for the nominative.

As a comment to what was written by the others: the plural form of the nouns is built by means of special suffixes, not endings.

And to Drew: it is die Lehrer (pl. nom) and den Lehrern (pl. dat.)

Answer 6

Like other people have said, yes they can change when made into a plural and with the genitive. Sometimes also with the dative. For example, the expression zu Hause, at home, you add an e.
There are also weak masculine nouns which take en when not in the nominative. Examples are; Junge, Name, Student.

Answer 7

Yes they do. Here are examples: the masculine word "Freund" (meaning "friend"), when PLURALIZED becomes "Freunde" (meaning "friends"). Note that along with the change is the noun are changes in accompanying words. "der Freund" (for "the friend") becomes "die Freunde" ("the friends" - note that in English the word "the" remains the same" even if the noun it is referring to has become plural). "Der Freund kommt" (meaning "the friend comes") becomes "Die Freunde kommen" ("the friends come").

The noun changes also when its GENDER is changed. The feminine form of "Freund" is "Freundin".

So yes, German NOUNS change their endings.

Answer 8

The ending also changes when you use a genitive.
For example:
Das Kind
Des Kindes (+es or sometimes only +s)
Der Mann
Des Mannes
Die Frau
Der Frau (so you see it doen´t change when you use a feminine noun).

Answer 9

Only when making them plural, feminine, or masculine, or when showing possession. Plural receives an "en" ending, and the "the" becomes "die". Masculine receives an "er", and is "der". Feminine an "in" and a "die". (some plural get only an "e", but that's rare). They do not get the treatment of adjective endings such as adding an "em" ending or anything.

Example; teacher

male teacher; der Lehrer
female teacher; die Lehrerin
teachers; die Lehreren