Family, Friends and Relationships - Vocabulary and the Case System
Talk about your family in German. Learn the words for family members, each with its article, and meet the case system: how mein (my) changes with gender and with case.
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Free, interactive practice on the words and structures the examiner keeps asking for.
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German family and cases
To talk about your family in German you need two things: the vocabulary, and the case system. German has three genders, shown by der (masculine), die (feminine) and das (neuter). The word for my, mein, changes to match the gender, and it changes again depending on the noun's job in the sentence, which is called its case.
Words for the family
Learn each noun WITH its article: der, die or das tells you its gender. German writes every noun with a capital letter, and also uses the umlaut vowels ä, ö and ü, as in das Mädchen (girl).
The German word for sister
Which German word means sister?
- die Schwester
- die Mutter
- der Bruder
- das Kind
Match the German to the English
- der Vater
- die Mutter
- der Bruder
- die Schwester
- father
- mother
- brother
- sister
Saying my: mein
The word for my is mein. Before a masculine or neuter noun it stays mein: mein Vater, mein Kind. Before a feminine or plural noun it becomes meine: meine Mutter, meine Eltern. This is the noun as the subject, which is the nominative case.
mein or meine?
Select the TWO phrases that correctly use mein for my.
- mein Vater
- mein Kind
- mein Mutter
- mein Schwester
One noun, three cases
German changes the article and mein depending on how the noun is used. Watch a masculine noun, der Vater, move through the three cases:
Match the case to the form
- Nominative
- Accusative
- Dative
- der Vater, when he is the subject
- den Vater, when he is the direct object
- dem Vater, after mit (with)
Complete the German
German changes mein to match the case. As the subject it is _____ Vater. After Ich liebe (I love), the masculine form becomes _____ Vater. After mit (with) it becomes _____ Vater. For my mother it is _____ Mutter as the subject, and after mit it is _____ Mutter.
Build the sentence
Put the words in order to make the German for I love my father.
- Ich
- liebe
- meinen
- Vater
German nouns and cases
Tap the TWO statements that are TRUE.
- German writes every noun with a capital letter.
- After mit (with), mein Vater becomes mit meinem Vater.
- die Schwester means brother.
- mein Mutter is correct, because Mutter is masculine.
- The article der never changes, whatever the case.
Choose the case
Choose the correct form of mein for the masculine noun Vater in each sentence.
- Vater is the subject: ___ Vater ist nett (My father is nice). Which form?
- Vater is the direct object: Ich sehe ___ Vater (I see my father). Which form?
- After mit (with): Ich spiele mit ___ Vater (I play with my father). Which form?
Explain the cases
In English, explain how the German word mein changes depending on gender and on case, and give a German example of each. This is written in English and is not auto-marked.
- Explain how mein changes for masculine, feminine, neuter and plural nouns in the nominative
- Explain how the masculine form changes in the accusative and the dative
- Give a German example sentence and point out the case
- Say why the case matters