The Genitive Case

Der Genitiv • Der Wesfall

The genitive case in German shows possession and is expressed in English by the possessive "of" or an apostrophe-s ('s). The genitive case is also used with some verb idioms and with the genitive prepositions. The genitive is used more in written German than in spoken form. In spoken, everyday German, von plus the dative often replaces the genitive: Das Auto von meinem Bruder = My brother's car.

You can tell that a noun is in the genitive case by the article, which changes to des/eines (masculine and neuter) or der/einer (feminine and plural). Since the genitive only has two forms (des or der), you only need to learn those two. However, in the masculine and neuter, there is also an additional noun ending, either -es or -s:

das Auto meines Bruders
my brother's car (the car of my brother)
die Bluse des Mädchens
the girl's blouse (the blouse of the girl)
der Titel des Filmes (Films)
the title of the film

Feminine and plural nouns do not add an ending in the genitive. The feminine genitive (der/einer) is identical to the feminine dative. The one-word genitive article usually translates as two words (of the / of a/an) in English.

Definite Articles (the)
Fall Case	Masc.	Neu.	Fem.	Plur.
Nom	der	das	die	die
Gen	des (-es/s)*		der
Indefinite Article (a/an)
Nom	ein	ein	eine	keine
Gen	eines (-es/s)*		(k)einer
*Note: Some masc. nouns add an -en or -n ending in the genitive and in all other cases besides the nominative.
Adjective endings: In the genitive case, adjectives almost always have an -en ending. Examples: des neuen Autos, der hohen Kosten

The Germanic word for the genitive case is der Wesfall. The question word in the genitive is wessen (whose): Wessen Buch hast du? (Whose book do you have?)

When showing possession with the names of people, countries or cities, German adds an s (without an apostrophe): Karls Haus, Marias Buch, die Geschichte Deutschlands (Germany's history). Unfortunately, many German-speakers have adopted the English practice of using an apostrophe (Karl's Auto) for the possessive forms, but it is still considered to be substandard German.

Some German verbs take an object in the genitive case.

Genitive Expressions
The genitive is used in some idiomatic expressions.

Ende der Woche gehen wir.
At the end of the week we're going.
Ich muss das Anfang des Monats bezahlen.
I have to pay that at the start of the month.