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Unless you are at a place in your German studies that you can鈥檛 think of a blessed other thing to work on other than the genitive case, I would actually recommend continuing to bypass it for now.

Dependent on your studies or line of work, you may never need to actually use the genitive itself (outside of maybe a few, easy-to-memorize phrases).

But if you do choose to learn the genitive case, you鈥檒l probably understand the news, legal documents, and literature a stitch better 鈥� and there is something to that!

What You Need To Know

The genitive case is the fourth, final, and least used German case. It is almost completely replaced by the dative case in everyday speech & writing.

So, what you need to know is that you really don鈥檛 have to learn the genitive case — you can manage everyday situations just fine without it.

However, you鈥檙e here. That means you want to learn the genitive case (it does still have some merits!). Which means I will teach you — not only what the genitive case is and how to use it, but when to use it (and when to use a substitute for it).

First, recall that the four cases indicate what role each noun is playing in a given sentence and, therefore, how each noun relates to the other nouns.

Since we鈥檙e delving into the genitive case, I鈥檒l give you a more thorough definition of it.

The genitive case in English or in German shows a relationship between two nouns. The noun in the genitive case modifies (tells us something about) the other noun. The first noun is part of, connected to, belongs to, or depends on the noun in the genitive case.

What is the Genitive Case in English?

In English, the genitive is frequently also called the possessive case. This is misleading. The genitive case actually has a much wider range of usage (and there are other ways of indicating possession that don鈥檛 involve the genitive case).

The genitive case can be used in the following ways:

• to denote ownership (Tom鈥檚 puppy)
• to talk about part of a whole (a slice of cake)
• as the subject of a verbal noun (the landing of the plane / the plane鈥檚 landing)
• as the object of a verbal noun (the construction of the house)
• to otherwise qualify or define a noun (a ray of hope)

For our purposes, let鈥檚 loosely define the genitive case as indicating possession. (English professors look away!)

For example, 鈥�children鈥檚 songs鈥� means songs for children. They鈥檙e not owned by the children per se, but in a broad sense, yes, those songs belong to the children (not to the adults).

Similarly, 鈥�Rembrandt鈥檚 paintings鈥� means painting by Rembrandt. He doesn鈥檛 possess them (in part because he鈥檚 dead), but, as the creator of them, does have (even from the grave!) a certain level of ownership over them.

Two ways to form the genitive

We have 2 forms of the genitive in English.

1. 鈥榮 is put onto the end of a noun: Frank鈥檚 car, the cat鈥檚 dinner
2. of used to connect the nouns: the walls of the room, the windows of the house

Add an 鈥榮

In English, it鈥檚 common usage to use this form of the genitive for animate objects: the 肠辞飞鈥檚 young calf, her 产补产测鈥檚 fuzzy socks, this 蹿濒辞飞别谤鈥檚 petals.

Use a phrase with 鈥榦f鈥�

In literature or other more formal registers, we might use an phrase with 鈥榦f鈥� to connect inanimate nouns to each other: the bells of the tower, the trunk of the car

However, in everyday speech, instead of saying, for example, The bells of the tower need repairing, we鈥檇 actually rephrase to The tower bells need repairing (<– no genitive case at all).

Likewise, instead of saying The trunk of the car is full, we can get away without specifying 鈥榦f the car鈥� and simply say The trunk is full, or even The car trunk is full (if we are specifying car as opposed to the van trunk).

Like the english examples above, German speakers increasingly re-formulate their sentences to avoid using the genitive. Keep reading for more below!

Avoid the genitive

Lastly, there is a third way to indicate one noun鈥檚 connection to (or possession of) another noun.

We can use possessive determiners (my, your, his, her, our, etc.) to indicate possession in any of the four cases, not just the genitive. In fact, possessive determiners are often used as a way to avoid expressing possession using the genitive case at all.

For example, take the possessive determiner my. Look at these two sentences:

1. 
2. 

In both instances we are expressing possession of the white dog with my.

In sentence #1, the noun phrase 鈥渕y white dog鈥� is in the nominative case. But in sentence #2 (with its elevated, literary formulation we wouldn鈥檛 use in everyday language), we insert the genitive of 鈥榤y white dog鈥� within the nominative 鈥�the paws鈥�.

So, the point to remember here is that possessive determiners indicate possession in any of the four cases, including (but not limited to) the genitive case.

In fact, in many instances, we can use possessive determiners as one of the ways to bypass the genitive altogether (Read 鈥�When To Use the Genitive (Or Not!) Section below鈥�).

NERD ALERT: The term possessive determiners might be new to you, but you might recognize either possessive pronouns or possessive adjectives. Possessive pronouns (e.g., mine, yours, hers, etc.) and possessive adjectives (e.g. my, your, her, etc.) are the 2 subcategories of possessive determiners.

How the Genitive Case Works in German

Loosely defined, German uses the same two ways to formulate the genitive and when to use which one is actually very similar to English, too! Cool!

The two ways to for the genitive in German are:

• Add an s (no apostrophe!)
• Use the structure modified noun + determiner (and/or +adjectives) + modifying noun

Adding an -s

In German, we can add an 鈥榮鈥� (no apostrophe!) to names or family member terms IF listed right in front of the noun they鈥檙e modifying: Vaters Computer, Opas Haus.

Modifying the sentence structure

If a determiner and/or adjective(s) is added, we need to use the #2 setup, which is equivalent to the 鈥榦f鈥� phrases in English. (This is the 鈥榗lassic German genitive鈥�):

Der Computer meines Vaters (My father鈥檚 computer, literally 鈥榯he computer of my father鈥�)
Das Haus meines lieben Opas (My dear grandpa鈥檚 house, or 鈥榯he house of my dear grandpa鈥�)

We also use this #2 variant of the genitive if we鈥檙e relating to nouns that aren鈥檛 people (so, this is more limited than the animate vs. inanimate genitive nouns in English):

Das Dach des Zuges (the roof of the train)
Das K盲lbchen der alten Kuh (the old 肠辞飞鈥檚 calf, or 鈥榯he calf of the old cow鈥�)

Just as in English, there is a third way to indicate one nouns connection to (or possession of) another noun 鈥� but it doesn鈥檛 necessarily involve the genitive case.

Avoiding the genitive

As mentioned above, we can use possessive determiners (my, your, his, her, our, etc.) to indicate possession in any of the four cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive).

These possessive determiners are frequently used as a way to avoid expressing possession using the genitive case at all.

NERD ALERT: You might feel confused on the topic of possessive determiners vs. genitive personal pronouns (see also the previous nerd alert!) Are they the same thing? Yes and no. The genitive personal pronouns (meiner, deiner, seiner, unser, i/Ihrer) are archaic, BUT they form the basis for the possessive determiners (mein-, dein-, sein-, unser-, i/Ihrer-, eur-) that we do still use!

The English example sentences from above function the same when translated into their German equivalents:

(My white dog has dirty paws.)

(My white dog鈥檚 paws, 鈥榯he paws of my white dog鈥�, are dirty.)

OK, so by now you hopefully understand why we use the genitive and with which forms. But that still leaves more to the how to use the genitive. Let鈥檚 dive in!

How to Use the Genitive Case

Now that you know the structure of the genitive case, you need to learn how to actually properly plug information into the genitive case.

Using the German genitive case by simply tacking an 鈥榮鈥� onto a name or family member term (directly in front of the noun being modified) is straightforward:

modifying noun (name or family member term) -s + modified noun
Opas Haus (Grandpa鈥檚 house)

What is trickier is using the #2 form with this structure:

modified noun + determiner (and/or +adjectives) + modifying noun

If we plug in our phrase 鈥榯he paws of my white dog鈥�, it looks like this:

Die Pfoten (modified noun) + meines (determiner) + 飞别颈脽别苍 (adjective) + Hundes (modifying noun)

Remember:
The modified noun is the one being described.
The modifying noun is the one doing the describing.

As in the other German cases (nominative, accusative, dative), the words that come in front of nouns must be 鈥榝lagged鈥� with slight grammar changes (called declensions) that indicate the gender & case of the noun.

The words in question with our white dog example are, then, meines and 飞别颈脽别苍. Keep reading!

Words that Need Declensions

In the above example, meines and 飞别颈脽别苍 (coming in front of the noun Hundes) were changed from their basic or 鈥榬oot鈥� forms:

• meines went from being just mein (my) to having an -es added to it.
• 飞别颈脽别苍 changed from being just 飞别颈脽 (white) to having an -en added to it.

That -es and -en are the 鈥榞rammar flags鈥� (declensions) that properly reflect that Hundes is a masculine noun in the genitive case.

There are two types of words that come in front of nouns: determiners and adjectives.

Determiners are little words (a, the, some, many, all, every, etc.) that tell us how many or which one.
Adjectives are words that describe some feature of the noun (e.g. big, flat, rough, new, green, etc.).

In our example, meines is a determiner and 飞别颈脽别苍 is an adjective. Look at it here again:

Why do meines and 飞别颈脽别苍 have different declensions, though? Why not the same because they鈥檙e both coming in front of a noun in the genitive case?

That is an excellent question! I鈥檓 glad you asked. 馃槈

Determiners & adjectives need different declensions because they are different types of words, so we can鈥檛 put them into the same category. In fact, declensions in general change based on:

• the gender of the noun (masculine, feminine, or neuter; or plural)
• which case it鈥檚 in (nominative, accusative, dative, or genitive)
• what type of words are in front of the noun (<– determiner vs. adjective)
• how many of each type are in front of the noun (e.g. are both a determiner & an adjective present? Or just adjectives, but no determiner? Or 鈥�)

Whoa! That might sound like a lot, but let鈥檚 break it down for just the genitive case. It鈥檚 really not that bad. You鈥檒l see. 馃檪

Genitive Case Declensions

The two types of declensions that we use for all determiners and adjectives: strong declensions & weak declensions.

Strong declensions better (but not flawlessly) indicate the gender/case of the noun because they are the most varied.

Weak declensions do not indicate the gender/case of the noun because they have almost no variation (there are just two options for any gender/case combo: -e or -n).

Look at this genitive case snippet of my all-in-one declensions chart. Notice the    for the strong declensions, the    for the weak declensions.

Heads Up!:

• the genitive case weak declensions are all the same (-n)
• there are also identical strong declensions for the masculine & neuter (-s)
• and then again for the feminine & plural (-r).

All of these declensions could be listed as –es, -er, or -en. But I leave all the 鈥榚鈥檚 out of the chart in part to make it less visually overwhelming. Just remember to add them in whenever you鈥檙e plugging determiners or adjectives into the chart! 馃檪

Look at our same example of the white dog鈥檚 muddy paws again:

Since Hund is a masculine noun, you can see the strong declension (-es) on the determiner (mein) and the weak declension on the adjective (飞别颈脽).

And that leads us straight into the next related point!

Basic Declension Patterns

There are two rules at play in our declensions chart. From them we derive two basic declension rules and patterns.

Rule 1: The gender/case of the noun must be signaled by a strong declension first [see patterns #1 and #2 below].

Rule 2: IF the gender/case of the noun has been signaled by the determiner, any remaining modifiers (adjectives) are off the hook and take weak declensions [see pattern #1 below].

Patterns #1 and #2 are most standard. Pattern #3 (not explained here) is for a handful of exception instances (that break our above rules ^^) that are not relevant in the genitive case (they are relevant only the nominative & accusative cases).

Can you see how the declensions patterns graphic connects with the declensions chart because of our 2 rules?

By understanding the basic declensions patterns, you always know which declension (strong or weak) to put on your determiner and/or adjective(s).

Do you also understand how these patterns combined with the declensions chart work with our white dog with dirty paws example?

That sentence is an example of pattern #1: the determiner mein has the strong -es declension and the adjective 飞别颈脽 has the weak declension.

Declined Nouns in the Genitive!

One important thing that hasn鈥檛 been addressed already (and it鈥檚 probably been driving you nuts) is WHY IS THERE AND -ES ON THE END OF HUND!?

Here鈥檚 your quick-n-easy answer:

It鈥檚 a special quirk of the genitive case that an -(e)s declension will be added onto any nouns that are masculine or neuter.

Why? I haven鈥檛 got a clue. I don鈥檛 think any Germans who aren鈥檛 linguistics professors have a clue either. But that is at least how it works even if we don鈥檛 now why.

NERD ALERT: Yes, you are right. It is very weird to add declensions onto nouns. Normally, just determiners & adjectives are declined (<– yes, that鈥檚 the verb form for 鈥榙eclensions鈥� — words are 鈥榙eclined鈥� with 鈥榙eclensions鈥�). Other than this example of declined masculine & neuter nouns in the genitive, the only other times we see nouns declined in German are in the dative plural –all nouns will take on an 鈥榥鈥� if there鈥檚 not one there already– and with a special group of 鈥榳eak鈥� masculine nouns (and even one neuter one, Herz, 鈥榟eart鈥�) that will also take 鈥榥鈥� in the accusative case.

Tip: note how the -(e)s being added to masculine & neuter genitive nouns is the same as the strong declension    in the masculine & neuter genitive!

For details on the nuances of this quirky genitive rule, read more below (jump there now).

Next, let鈥檚 apply these declensions patterns AND the declensions chart by looking at a couple new examples.

Declension Pattern #1 Example:

(My dear grandpa鈥檚 house, or 鈥榯he house of my dear grandpa鈥� is very small.)

Our genitive phrase here is meines lieben Opas (Opa is, of course, a masculine noun — der Opa in the nominative case). It is modifying Das Haus and which is all (das Haus meines lieben Opas) in the nominative case, with the genitive phrase nestled inside.

REMEMBER: We add an -(e)s onto the end of our noun Opa because it鈥檚 a masculine genitive (and we鈥檙e adding just an -s because Opa ends with a vowel. Read more details here below!)

Then, we have a determiner (meines) and an adjective(lieben).

Do you see the strong declension (-s) on the determiner (鈥榤y鈥� = meines)? On the declensions chart, the -s is listed under    in the masculine category.

We take the basic, 鈥榬oot鈥� form of the possessive determiner mein (my) and plug it into the genitive 鈥榮lot鈥� in our sentence by adding the -es.

REMEMBER: If there鈥檚 a determiner, it will take the strong declension for whichever gender category the noun belongs to (masculine, feminine, neuter; or plural).

Then, do you see the -n weak declension on lieben? It鈥檚 listed under the    in the masculine category of the declensions chart.

The 鈥榬oot鈥� form of dear is lieb. So, we take lieb and put the declension onto it — this time the weak declension because the strong declension was already claimed by the determiner (mein).

REMEMBER: W e need to add an -e first before we add on the declensions! meines, 飞别颈脽别苍

Can you see with this example how it all fits together? How meines lieben Opas is in the genitive case, taking a strong declension on the determiner and a weak declension on the adjective as dictated by declension pattern #1?

Declension Pattern #2 Example:

Now let鈥檚 look at an example that would work for a feminine or plural noun.

We鈥檒l return to our white dog with dirty paws example, but add more dogs to make it plural.

(鈥楾he paws of white dogs鈥� are always dirty).

Our genitive phrase here is 飞别颈脽er Hunde and it鈥檚 modifying Die Pfoten. All together, Die Pfoten 飞别颈脽er Hunde is the complete subject of this sentence (and that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 in the nominative case with the genitive phrase tucked inside).

Since this sentence fits in with declension pattern #2, we have no determiner — just the adjective 飞别颈脽.

奥别颈脽 needs to take the strong declensions listed under the plural (which match the feminine, recall!) because there is no determiner to take care of that.

So the adjective has to step up to the plate. That鈥檚 why we add -er to our adjectives 飞别颈脽 to make it 飞别颈脽er.

Summary

Uffda! Well done! So, now you know what the genitive case is and how to use it.

If you want more information on different applications of the genitive case (including, very importantly, when not to use it), keep reading!

For a quick summary of the most important features of the genitive case, read the Main Takeaways below. I also recommend you check out my Study Tips section!

Digging Deeper

In this section, you will learn about how the genitive case (and its declensions) is used with …

• reflexive verbs
• adjectives
• prepositions
• time expressions
• measurement phrases
• idiomatic phrases

We鈥檒l also discuss additional info to the topics of our basic declensions patterns (<– there鈥檚 a genitive case exception!) and declined masculine & neuter nouns.

Most importantly, we鈥檒l talk about when to use the genitive (or, more likely, when not to). Let鈥檚 start there!

When to Use the Genitive (Or Not)

Whenever I come across usage of the genitive in German books I鈥檓 reading, I always feel so delighted. It鈥檚 somehow simultaneously cute & old-fashioned and also sassy badass.

While the genitive is all but dead already in colloquial German, there is something about coming across it in books (or using it your own writing) that just makes you feel so darn smart and plucky.

I鈥檒l repeat that of the long study list for How to Learn German Efficiently & Effectively (<– I should write an article on that, huh?), learning the genitive case rightfully belongs pretty low on the totem pole.

That said, if you鈥檙e still reading this, you must have exhausted your other study options. :-p So, we鈥檒l keep going.

NERD ALERT: Did you know that English used to have an inflected case system similar to German鈥檚? It gradually died out because we figured out other, simpler ways to communicate the same desired meaning (hint: using word order). I wonder how long before the whole case system in German dies out, too, if ever? Well, what we can say for sure is that the genitive is definitely the next part to go — it鈥檚 already halfway out the door.

When the Genitive IS used

The genitive, with its two formulations that you learned above, is on the one hand still very much in use and, on the other, habitually avoided.

The genitive is absolutely still in common use when you can slap an 鈥榮鈥� onto a name or family member term that comes immediately in front of whatever noun is 鈥榦wned鈥� by that person.

Our earlier examples of this were Vaters Computer, Opas Haus, Franks Auto.

This form of the genitive is easy to use, easy to remember. It鈥檚 just like English (just without the apostrophe [鈥榏). Simple!

When the Genitive ISN鈥橳 used

But, as I mentioned above, German speakers use work-arounds in order to avoid specifically the #2 genitive form — just like we English speakers do!

For example, in literature or other elevated speech/text, we might see sentences such as our declensions patterns examples above:

However, we can take any #2 genitive form and rephrase it so that the genitive is unnecessary.

How do we do that? Simple! Use a dative case formulation instead.

Dative 鈥榲on鈥� vs. Genitive

In everyday German, we would use the preposition von (which is a dative preposition, meaning that the noun phrase that follows it must be in the dative case).

Look at this snippet of the dative case declensions so you can understand the changes on the determiners & adjectives here. (And recall that plural nouns — Hunde — in the dative must have an 鈥榥鈥� added to them — Hunden).

Other Formulations

Of course, we have other ways that we can avoid using the #2 鈥榗lassic genitive鈥� formulation of

modified noun + determiner (and/or +adjectives) + modifying noun

As discussed earlier, many times just using a possessive determiner (my, your, his, our, etc.) and opting for other cases will do trick.

For example, instead of saying My grandpa鈥檚 house is very small (which in English is perfectly fine, but in German is the cumbersome classic genitive we鈥檙e trying to avoid: Das Haus meines Opas ist sehr klein), we can rephrase the sentence like this:

(My grandpa has a very small house).

Similarly, we can rephrase:
Die Pfoten 飞别颈脽er Hunde sind immer schmutzig
…to a simpler sentence that also makes use of just the nominative & accusative cases:

(White dogs always have dirty paws).

NERD ALERT: This simple formulation of someone (nominative) has something (accusative) is the most 鈥榥eutral鈥� way of phrasing this information. If you use the dative 鈥榲on鈥� version, you鈥檙e likely implying (or explicitly mentioning) a comparison. For example, Das Haus von meinem Opa ist sehr klein (But my aunt鈥檚 house is quite large; in this particular scenario, chances are you were previously talking about your aunt鈥檚 large house and then mentioned your grandpa鈥檚 small one by comparison). Or, Die Pfoten 飞别颈脽er Hunde sind immer schmutzig implies that the paws of differently colored dogs (e.g. brown, black) at least don鈥檛 appear to be so dirty.

One Genitive Exception Basic Declensions Patterns

Just when you thought you were getting off easy, right? Sorry 鈥榖out that.

Remember this from above?

Well, there鈥檚 an exception here we need to talk about.

For some reason (and I don鈥檛 know the reason), in the genitive ONLY, if you are formulating a genitive phrase with just adjectives (<– so, declension pattern #2), the adjectives will take weak declensions … but in front of specifically a masculine or neuter noun.

According to our rules, we would expect to put strong declensions on those adjectives, but we don鈥檛 — but just in these 2 instances.

We do still follow our rules to a 鈥楾鈥� for feminine & plural nouns (so, adjectives as part of basic declension #2 take strong endings, like we鈥檇 expect), but, again, masculine & neuter genitive nouns are oddballs.

More Info on Declined Genitive Nouns

Above, we briefly talked about masculine & neuter genitive nouns being declined with -(e)s. Of course, it鈥檚 never quite that simple. So, here are the full details for you.

When to use -es or just -s?

Decline masculine & neuter genitive nouns with -es

• after monosyllabic nouns (das Rad [wheel] 鈫� des Rades)
• when the noun ends with a sybillant (-s, -sch, -脽, -x, or -z)
  • note that nouns ending with –nis must double the noun鈥檚 鈥榮鈥� before adding the -es declension: das Missverst盲ndnis 鈫� die Missverst盲ndnisses

Decline masculine & neuter genitive nouns with just -s

• after polysyllabic nouns(das Fahrrad [bike] 鈫� des Fahrrads)
• when the noun ends with a vowel (der Opa 鈫� des Opas)
• with words ending with a silent 鈥榟鈥� (der Schuh 鈫� des Schuhs)

Exceptions!

• Foreign nouns ending with 鈥榮鈥� (e.g. Kapitalismus, Chaos) do not usually decline with -(e)s
• Nouns directly following a genitive preposition (with no determiner and/or adjectives) have the option of leaving the -(e)s declension off (e.g. trotz Schnee [despite snow])

Fun Fact: all plural nouns in the dative case are also ‘declined’.

Genitive Verbs

At this point, I bet you know what I have to say: guess what, there are lots of genitive verbs (i.e. verbs that require a genitive object [noun] after them) 鈥� but they are used only in formal contexts these days.

In colloquial German, things have switched over to simply other verbs, other phrases — that all involve other cases (鈥榓ny other case other than genitive鈥� is basically the motto!).

BUT there are a few verbs where you just might still hear (or use) the genitive in fairly normal life. In each of these instances, the etwas (something) is where you鈥檇 plug in a genitive noun. In most instances, I鈥檝e included a different verb that is arguably more common yet.

etwas bed眉rfen (to have need of something)
— Ich bedarf deiner Hilfe (I need your help).
OR Ich brauche deine Hilfe (acc).

sich etwas bedienen (to make use of something)
— Ich kann des Geldes bedienen (I could use the money).
OR Ich kann das Geld (acc). gut gebrauchen

sich etwas bem盲chtigen (to take control over something)
— Ich konnte meiner Krankheit nicht bem盲chtigen (I couldn鈥檛 get the upper hand over my illness).
OR Ich konnte keine Kontrolle (acc) 眉ber meine Krankheit (acc) gewinnen.

sich etwas erwehren (to resist [doing] something)
— Ich kann mich den Eindruck nicht erwehren, dass… (I can鈥檛 fight the impression that …).
OR perhaps a formulation with the accusative verbs widersetzen or widerstehen

sich etwas erfreuen (to enjoy, be the beneficiary of something)
— Ich erfreue mich dieses neuen Erfolges! (I鈥檓 enjoying this new success!)
OR Ich freue mich 眉ber diesen neuen Erfolg (acc.)!

Read more on: Verbs paired with the accusative case and verbs paired with the dative case.

Genitive Adjectives

There are 5 genitive adjectives of interest, and 3 of them (with an *) are also used in the dative (with very slightly different meanings).

Of course, there are many more genitive adjectives, but — as you鈥檝e come to expect by now — they are used only in formal registers.

The 5 genitive adjectives worth knowing are:

*sich (dat.) bewusst (conscious of, aware of)
*(un)schuldig ([not] guilty of)
*wert (worth, worthy of)
gewiss (certain of, sure of)
m眉de (tired of)

Note that all of these are paired with the verb sein (to be) and that the adjective follows the noun / pronoun. Here are a couple examples:

Ich bin des st盲ndigen Verschiebens m眉de (I鈥檓 tired of the constant postponement of plans).
Ich bin meines gro脽en Fehlers gewiss (I am aware of my huge mistake).

Read more on: Adjectives paired with the accusative case and adjectives paired with the dative case.

Genitive Prepositions

4 Semi-Unpredictable Genitive Prepositions

There are 4 German prepositions that still typically take the genitive in formal German, but — no surprise here — will often (but not necessarily always — there are still some grammar sticklers out there!) be paired with the dative in colloquial German:

飞盲丑谤别苍诲 (during), trotz (despite), wegen (because of), (an)statt (instead of)

Check out these couple examples with the genitive / dative versions side-by-side:

Trotz des Wetters / dem Wetter machen wir einen Ausflug (Despite the weather, we鈥檙e going on a day trip).

奥盲丑谤别苍诲 des Sommers / dem Sommer verreisen wir in die Schweiz (During the summer, we鈥檒l travel to Switzerland).

Of course, if the preposition is followed by a feminine noun, specifically, it is identical in both the genitive and dative cases:

Wegen der Megaglucke war die Kindergeburtstagsparty ruiniert! (The kids鈥� birthday party was ruined because by super-helicopter mom).

鈥榃egen鈥� + Pronoun = Something Special!

Genitive prepositions don鈥檛 usually combine with pronouns, but wegen does!

meinetwegen — as far as I鈥檓 concerned / because of me / on my account
deinetwegen — as far as you鈥檙e concerned / because of you / on your account
seinetwegen — as far as he鈥檚 concerned / because of him / on his account

Of course, then, following the same pattern, we have ihretwegen, unsertwegen, eueretwegen.

Note that meinetwegen can idiomatically stand alone as a response, meaning 鈥榮ure鈥� / 鈥榞o ahead鈥� or even 鈥榝or all I care鈥�, dependent on the tone used to say it. 馃檪

Genitive Directional Prepositions

There are also 8 genitive directional prepositions (ending with -halb or -seits) that in colloquial German (if not also in formal registers, too), are now paired with the dative preposition 鈥榲on鈥�:

Der Sand muss innerhalb von dem Sandkasten bleiben, Liebchen! (The sand has to stay inside the sandbox, my love!)

Jenseits von der Grenze gab es nur Qual und Not (On the other side of the border was only agony and hardship).

There are a good 50 other genitive prepositions found generally only in very formal settings!

Read more on: Prepositions paired with the accusative case and prepositions paired with the dative case.

Time Expressions

It鈥檚 common in stories to express indefinite time (e.g. one day / someday) in the genitive case. We might refer to an indefinite day of the week, a time of day, or other chunk of time (week, month, year).

eines Tages (one day / someday)
eines Nachmittags (one / some afternoon)
eines Abends (one / some evening)
eines Nachts (one / some night)
eines Montags (one / some Monday)
eines Monats (one / some month)
eines Jahres (one / some year)

Understanding the declensions of these set, idiomatic phrases

You can see in these examples our 鈥榚in鈥� takes the strong declension -(e)s and even the nouns have an -(e)s tacked onto them, too! (click here for more on this oddball rule of declining masculine & neuter genitive nouns) As a huge exception to standard grammar rules, even our one feminine noun (Nacht) takes an -s on it, just to follow with the same pattern.

Of course, if we had adjectives, they would take weak declensions:

eines sch枚nen Sommers (one / some beautiful summer)
eines nebligen Morgens (one / some foggy morning)

Usage / Translation of these phrases

Let鈥檚 look at 2 examples with eines Tages and the slightly different English translations of it:

• Used in a narrative (e.g. fairy tales): Eines Tages starb die alte, b枚se K枚nigin (One day, the old, evil queen died).
• To express a wish for something in the future: Eines Tages reise ich nach Deutschland (One Day OR Someday I鈥檒l travel to Germany).

Commonly used adverbs originally from genitive forms

Some genitive phrases have become simple adverbs (note the 鈥榮鈥� on the ends of the regular, nominative noun forms and how the words are all lowercase), which are common in regular, everyday German:

morgens (in the mornings) [used to be des Morgens]
tags (by day) [used to be des Tages]
wochentags (on weekdays) [used to be des Wochentags]
(and more!)

Measurement Phrases

Note: The accusative case is frequently used with measurement phrases.

The genitive case is used for measurement phrases ONLY with the sequence of noun of measurement + adjective + noun.

Even then, it is merely an alternative to using a phrase with 鈥榲on鈥� (dative) OR to using an apposition (<– puts the noun of measurement AND the noun of what is being measured in the same case):

Genitive:
eine Flasche sommerabendlichen Dufts(a bottle of perfume that smells like a summer evening)

Apposition:
eine Flasche sommerabendlicher Duft

Von:
eine Flasche von sommerabendlichem Duft

In general, the phrases with 鈥榲on鈥� are preferred. Apposition is also common (though frequently messed up, with the cases not matching). Your only chance of hearing a measurement phrase in the genitive would be if it鈥檚 in the plural, like this:

zwanzig Jahre flei脽iger Mitarbeit (twenty years industrious collaboration)

And even plural measurement phrases in the genitive are more and more relegated to formal written texts. Surprise surprise, right?

Genitive Idiomatic Phrases Worth Knowing

If you鈥檝e read straight-through to this point, you鈥檝e surely come to the conclusion that unless you鈥檙e an academic, lawyer, public official, or someone else who鈥檚 line of work might require speaking and writing in more elevated language, you scarcely need to learn any genitive at all.

And you鈥檙e right. Maybe few genitive verbs, a few genitive adjectives, and 鈥� these following handful of genitive idiomatic phrases. Then, you鈥檙e set!

der Gefahr nicht achten (to pay no heed to danger)
jemanden eines Besseren belehren (to show someone better)
jemanden keines Blickes w眉rdigen (to not deign to look at someone)

As you might guess from the sophisticated air of these phrases in English, these German phrases would also be said tongue-in-cheek (but we all needs some phrases like that, right?).

A couple more genitive formulations I sometimes personally use:

Aufgrund des Unfalls konnte ich dich nicht treffen (I couldn鈥檛 meet with you because of the accident).

Dank des unf盲higen Chirurgs habe ich nun eine gro脽e Narbe (Thanks to the incapable surgeon, I now have a huge scar).

Main Takeaways

• The genitive (sometimes called the 鈥榩ossessive鈥�) case is used to indicate a connection (though not necessarily possession, strictly defined) between two nouns.
• There are 2 ways to form the genitive in German:
  • add an 鈥榮鈥� to names or family member terms that come directly in front of the noun they鈥檙e modifying
  • use the structure modified noun + determiner (and/or +adjectives) + modifying noun which requires genitive case declensions on the determiner and/or adjective(s)
• In most instances (and more and more), the genitive is avoided completely, and via several different means:
  • insert the dative preposition 鈥榲on鈥� and then convert the would-be genitive phrase to a dative one (e.g. Der Computer meines Vaters 鈫� Der Computer von meinem Vater)
  • use a possessive determiner (e.g. my, your, his, her, etc.) and a rephrasing of the sentence, making use of other cases (nominative, accusative, or dative)
  • use different verbs / adjectives / etc. that don鈥檛 require a genitive object
• There are a handful of genitive verbs, adverbs, and prepositions that you might come across in the news, literature, or paperwork, OR possibly even hear (or use yourself) in colloquial, conversational German. BUT the vast majority of all genitive usage exists only in formal registers.
• IF you鈥檙e going to use the genitive case, here are the declensions you need to know:
  
• Note that masculine & neuter genitive nouns have an -(e)s added to them, too, which is very unusual (normally nouns are not declined — just determiners & adjectives).
• The genitive (outside of the adding an 鈥榮鈥� variety) is not something you will use often (or possibly ever), so it鈥檚 not a super-crucial point in your German studies (unless you鈥檝e nearly exhausted everything else). So, don鈥檛 overdo it on this one!
• More than anything, you鈥檙e likely to hear (and use) set, idiomatic phrases in the genitive (e.g. eines Tages — one / someday) and these are worth knowing.

Study Tips

The list of what you need to know in the genitive is crazy-short.

• Add an 鈥榮鈥� to names & family member terms when they come directly in front of the noun they鈥檙e modifying: Vaters Computer, Opas Haus.
• If dealing with anything other than people OR if there is extra info inserted between the nouns, generally a formulation with the dative preposition 鈥榲on鈥� is in order: Der Computer von meinem Vater, Das Haus von meinem Opa
• Use at least meinetwegen, if not also the other wegen + pronoun forms
• Use the time expressions for 鈥榦ne day / someday鈥� (eines Tages) and the like
• Learn the idiomatic phrases and adjectives

To come at this come the other angle, I recommend NOT using the genitive in these instances of spoken German (they are still very often appropriate in written German):

• with prepositions — just use the dative
• with verbs — opt for less pretentious alternatives
• with measurements — use apposition or 鈥榲on鈥� phrases instead