einer, eines, einen
I'm having trouble determining when to say "einer", "eines", "einen", "keiner", "keines", "keinen", etc.
For example, why is it "keines" in the sentence "Ich habe keines der Bücher gelesen."? Why not "keiner" or "keinen"?
Or what about "Eines ist neu. Das Andere ist alt." Why is it "eines" here instead of "einer"?
Or "einen" in "Wollt ihr noch einen hiervon?"? Why not "einer" or "eines"?
What is the grammatical rule here?
I feel like this is a very basic grammatical concept and I don't why I'm not getting it. Can someone please explain it to me?
Cerca tra vari insegnanti di Inglese...
Risposte · 9
1
It depends on the gender and case of the noun it refers to, just like an article. "Buch" is a neutral noun, for example, so it's "(k)eines". "Einen" refers to a masculine noun in the accusative as required by "wollen" ("einer" would be masculine too, but nominative).
https://www.verbformen.de/deklination/pronomen/ein.htm
1
Hello Taras,
I've found a comprehensive explanation of indefinite articles in German on https://www.cafe-lingua.de/deutsche-grammatik/die-unbestimmten-artikel.php oder https://www.deutsch-als-fremdsprache-lernen.de/unbestimmter-artikel-deutsch-lernen-ein-eine-regeln-deklination-faelle/.
What it says is basically, that there are different indefinite articles for männliche/masculinum, weibliche/femininum and sächliche/neutrum articles. All of which have four cases but are only present in singular. Please find them in the table below:
Kasus (Fall) männlich weiblich sächlich
Nominativ (wer/was?) ein Hirsch eine Katze ein Reh
Genitiv (wessen?) eines Hirsches einer Katze eines Rehs
Dativ (wem?) einem Hirsch einer Katze einem Reh
Akkusativ (wen/was?) einen Hirsch eine Katze ein Reh
Which case is to be used, depends on the sentence structure. So, what you can do, is to ask for the noun in the sentence. "Bücher" in your first example. So ask: "Welches Buch?" Answer: "Keines der Bücher."
The question word "welches" maps to the 2nd case (Genitiv). So you look up Genitiv/sächlich, which results in "(k)eines".
Example: "Eines ist neu."
Question: "Welches ist neu?" -> Genitiv/sächlich
Example: "Wollt ihr noch einen hiervon?"
Question: "Wen wollt ihr?" -> Akkusativ/männlich
I wished I had an easier answer for you....
Kind regards,
Thomas
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