Does the -s ending remind you of something? Yes! English works nearly the same—you just add an apostrophe (Tamino’s magic flute) that is not added in German.
German Articles
How to use the genitive case in German?
By: Ulrike Carlson Thu Jun 05 2025
In German, the genitive case is classically used for nouns that represent the owner of another noun or shows that one noun belongs to another noun.
For example, in Mozart’s famous opera Die Zauberflöte(The Magic Flute), genitive case plays a big role, when the Queen of the Night sings her powerful aria titled:
- genitive case
Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen!
Hell’s revenge is cooking in my heart!
→ Her revenge originates in or belongs to a hellish place!
However there are also a few other uses of the genitive case, for example, it follows certain prepositions.
genitive prepositiongenitive case
Tamino und Papageno standen außerhalb des Tempels.
Tamino and Papageno stood outside of the temple.
In modern German, the genitive case is considered a bit formal, so you might not encounter it a lot in everyday conversation. However, you will encounter it in formal contexts (like at the opera!) so it’s important to know how to use it as well as the strategies you can use to avoid it! So, come to the opera and find out more about the genitive case!
Table of Contents
What is the genitive case in German?
The genitive case is one of the four cases in German: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. Each case represents a special form given to the words in noun phrasesNo definition set for noun phrasesLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. that perform some particular grammatical function in a sentence.
As we mentioned above, the genitive case may be used to mark an association of belonging. That can mean ownership, that a part belongs to a whole or even more distant relationships like authorship. The noun representing the owner is then called a genitive attribute.
- Ownership:
Das Schwert des Priesters war scharf.
The sword of the priest was sharp.
- Part of the whole:
Das Holz der Zauberflöte war braun.
The wood of the magic flute was brown.
- Authorship:
Der Komponist der Oper war Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The composer of the opera was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozert.
The case of a noun phrase can affect not only the form of the nounNo definition set for nounLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. or pronounNo definition set for pronounLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. itself, but also all the words that go along with it, including articlesNo definition set for articlesLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum., adjectivesNo definition set for adjectivesLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum., and other noun-modifying words. Therefore all of these different types of words may have special genitive forms.
Need a quick refresher on cases? Find out more about German cases and how they work in our post on the German case system. But now, let’s take a closer look at those genitive attributes!
How to form the genitive case in German?
How to form the genitive case of nouns in German?
In German, you’ll put a noun in the genitive case either by applying no change to the form of a noun or by adding an -s or an -es to the end of a noun. For obvious reasons, you’ll sometimes hear this second option called the “s-genitive.”
However, the exact rules for forming the genitive and forming possessive phrases will depend on the type of noun you are putting into the genitive. There are three major categories:
personal names
place names
all other nouns
These two sentences illustrate all three types:
genitive case
Mozart ist der wichtigste Komponist Österreichs.
Mozart is Austria’s most important composer.
→ Österreichs is a place name.
In seiner Oper ist Paminas Mutter die Königin der Nacht.
→ Pamina is a personal name and der Nacht belongs to the “other” category
Tip
Next, let’s learn how to form the genitive case of each type of genitive attribute!
Personal names
In German, forming the genitive case of a personal name (first or last) is really easy: just add -s to the name! When the genitive attribute is a personal name, it will stand in front of the noun representing what is being owned:
-s genitiveowned noun
Taminos Zauberflöte
Tamino’s magic flute
Mozarts Oper
Mozart’s opera
But be careful! If the name ends with s, x, ß, or z, we don’t add an -s to form a genitive attribute, but rather no ending at all. When writing, the “missing” s is expressed by an apostrophe, but that doesn’t influence pronunciation:
-s genitiveowned noun
Amadeus’ Klavier
Amadeus’ piano
Tip
Occasionally, a last name s-genitive can stand behind the noun to lend the phrase even more gravitas and formality. You will likely only encounter this mostly in written texts:
owned noun-s genitive
Die Oper “Die Zauberflöte” war der größte Erfolg Mozarts.
The opera “The Magic Flute” was Mozart’s biggest success.
The s-genitive is still used if a name is preceded by a title, such as Herr Schikaneder(Mr. Schikaneder) or Frau Hofer(Ms. Hofer), but in that case, the title also needs to be put into the genitive case.
genitive case
Herrn Schikaneders Tamino und Frau Hofers Königin der Nacht waren ausgezeichnet.
Mr. Schikaneder’s Tamino and Ms. Hofer’s Queen of the Night were excellent.
Because the titles aren’t “personal names” they’ll follow the genitive case rules outlined below.
Tip
The genitive of the common title Herr(Mister) is a bit unusual because Herr is a so-called n-noun (or weak declension noun). These nouns end with -n in all cases except the nominative.
Geographical place names
Geographical place Like personal names, the genitive case of place names is usually formed by adding the ending -s. However, genitive attributes formed from geographical names stand behind the noun they are describing, not in front:
possessed noungenitive case
Salzburg ist die viertgrößte Stadt Österreichs und eine der schönsten Städte Europas.
Salzburg is the fourth-biggest city of Austria and one of the most beautiful cities of Europe.
However, if the name of a place includes an article, the name of the place does not take an -s. Some examples of place names like this might include: die Schweiz(Switzerland), die Ukraine(Ukraine) or die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika(the United States of America). When these types of places occur in the genitive case, the article and modifiers need to take on its genitive case form but the name itself doesn’t have a special ending.
possessed noungenitive case
Der Besuch der Schweiz war das Ende von Mozarts Konzertreise.
The visit to Switzerland was the end of Mozart’s concert tour.
Other nouns
With nouns that are not names for places or people, the genitive case form will depend on the gender and number of the noun:
Masculine and neuter singular nouns → add the ending -s or -es
Feminine singular and plural nouns → no change
Genitive attributes formed from non-names stand behind the noun they are describing:
possessed noungenitive case
Der Klang der Zauberflöte hilft Tamino bei seinen Prüfungen.
The sound of the magic flute helps Tamino in his trials.
Die Rede des Priesters erstaunt Tamino.
The speech of the priest astonishes Tamino.
But when to add -s and when to add -es to a masculine or neuter noun? Here is a handy rule:
nouns with more than one syllableNo definition set for syllableLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. → add -s
genitive caseDie Position des Orchestergrabens ist direkt vor der Bühne.
The position of the orchestra pit is directly in front of the stage.
all other nouns → add -es
genitive caseDie Farbe des Kleides der Königin ist dunkelblau.
The color of the queen’s dress is dark blue.
How to form the genitive case of articles and similar words?
The following tables illustrate the genitive case of definite articles and indefinite articles in German, contrasted with their nominative (dictionary) forms:
Definite articles (“the”) | ||
|---|---|---|
Gender/Number | Nominative | Genitive |
Masculine | der | des |
Feminine | die | der |
Neuter | das | des |
Plural | die | der |
Indefinite articles (“a(n)”) | ||
|---|---|---|
Gender/Number | Nominative | Genitive |
Masculine | ein | eines |
Feminine | eine | einer |
Neuter | ein | eines |
Important
In our post on German definite articles, we mentioned that you can use the SRSR portion of the larger mnemonic RESE-NESE-MRMN-SRSR to remember the endings of the genitive articles des, der, des, der or eines, einer, eines.
This mnemonic will work for the accusative endings of some other types of words as well. For example you can use it for:
demonstratives e.g. diesen(this) or jenen(those)
possessive adjectives e.g. mein(my)
negative indefinite articles e.g. klein(no)
Here are some examples! Notice the endings -es and -er?
- Demonstrative:
Der Klang jener Flöte kann Tiere besänftigen.
The sound of that flute can pacify animals.
- Possessive adjective:
Hörst du den Klang meines Glockenspiels?
Do you hear the sound of my bells?
- Negative indefinite article:
Das ist keines Vogels Stimme, das ist Papageno.
That is not the voice of a bird, that is Papageno.
→ This use of the negative indefinite article is highly formal.
Next, let’s check out the genitive case forms of pronouns, adjectives, and prepositions.
How to form the genitive case of German pronouns?
Different types of German pronouns have different genitive case rules:
German personal pronouns (e.g. “he” or “we”) have no genitive forms. When you want to specify that something belongs to a personal pronoun, you’ll use a possessive adjective (e.g. “his” or “our”) instead.
As we saw in the previous section, demonstratives (e.g. “this” or “that”) use the same SRSR endings as the articles.
The genitive case interrogative pronoun is wessen(of whose):
genitive caseWessen Dolch soll Pamina nehmen?
Whose dagger is Pamina supposed to take?
The genitive case of the relative pronoun in German is dessen or deren. Both mean “whose” but we use dessen when the possessor is masculine or neuter singular and deren when the possessor is plural or feminine singular.
antecedent (possessor)genitive caseMozart, dessen Oper “Die Zauberflöte” weltbekannt ist, komponierte noch viel mehr.
Mozart, whose opera “The Magic Flute” is world-renowned, composed a lot more.
Dort kommt die Königin, deren Tochter Tamino liebt.
There comes the queen, whose daughter loves Tamino.
How to form the genitive case of adjectives in German?
Adjectives that directly precede nouns also change their form according to the case by adding an adjective ending. Here are the rules for adjectives preceding nouns in the genitive case:
When a genitive adjective is preceded by an article it will end with -en
definite article (genitive)genitive adjectiveDer Tempel des weisen Priesters der goldenen Sonne.
The temple of the wise priest of the golden sun.
When a genitive adjective is not preceded by an article there are two possible endings:
Use -en for adjectives preceding masculine or neuter singular nouns.
Use -er for adjectives preceding a plural or feminine singular noun.
For example:
- genitive adjectiveneuter singular noun
Der Anblick frischen Wassers brachte Papageno zum Sprechen.
The sight of fresh water made Papageno speak.
- genitive adjectiveplural noun
Die Worte weiser Priester sollte man befolgen.
The words of wise priests should be followed.
Important
In the genitive case, you will almost never see singular adjectives used without a preceding definite article. The only case where you’ll see them is when you’re using so-called mass nounsNo definition set for mass nounsLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. standing in for a large quantity of something, such as a liquid like water or milk.
What are the German genitive prepositions?
The German genitive prepositions a set of prepositions that are always or usually followed by noun phrases the genitive case. Though some of these relate to possession or belonging, many of them have meanings completely unrelated to possession — they just happen to be followed by the genitive.
Some examples of genitive prepositions are während(while), or trotz(despite that), or außerhalb(outside of).
genitive prepositiongenitive case
Während ihres Liedes nahm die Königin den Dolch.
During her song, the queen took the dagger.
Trotz des Konflikts siegte schließlich die Liebe.
Despite the conflict, love won out finally.
Außerhalb des Tempels schlich Monostatos durch das Gebüsch.
Outside of the temple, Monostatos was sneaking through the bushes.
The full list of genitive prepositions in German is quite long, but many of them rarely occur in colloquial German. You might find them in official documents but not hear them in the streets. To see the full list, check out our German genitive case reference sheet.
Though all of the genitive prepositions should be used before the genitive case in formal contexts (like writing), in colloquial German, some of them are used more often with the dative case. For example:
- dative case
Wegen dem Glockenspiel entkommen sie Monostatos.
Because of the bells, they escape Monostatos.
→ Casual, spoken German - genitive case
Wegen des Glockenspiels entkommen sie Monostatos.
Because of the bells, they escape Monostatos.
→ Formal or written German
There are a few genitive prepositions that can be used either before or after the noun phrase. Though they assign the genitive case before the noun, they assign the dative case when they are used after the noun:
- prepositiongenitive case
Zufolge des Priesters ist die Königin böse.
According to the priest, the queen is evil.
- dative casepreposition
Dem Priester zufolge ist die Königin böse.
According to the priest, the queen is evil.
Exception!
The preposition entlang(alongside, along) is a bit of an oddity even among genitive prepositions: Entlang requires genitive case when in front of the noun, but the accusative case when following behind, as a postpositionNo definition set for postpositionLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.:
- prepositiongenitive case
Entlang des Weges sah Papageno Blumen wachsen.
Alongside the path, Papageno saw flowers grow.
- accusative casepreposition
Tamino und Pamina gehen den Weg entlang.
Tamino and Pamina are walking along the path.
When to use the dative case instead of the genitive case?
In spoken German you will often use the dative case instead of the genitive case.
After a genitive preposition, you can just replace the genitive with the dative, as long as you’re speaking casually:
genitive prepositiondative caseWährend ihrem Lied nahm die Königin den Dolch.
During her song, the queen took the dagger.
→ casualTo replace the a possessive use of the genitive, use von(of) + dative case instead:
Genitive caseVon + Dative casegenitive caseMozart ist der wichtigste Komponist Österreichs.
Mozart is Austria’s most important composer.
dative caseMozart ist der wichtigste Komponist von Österreich.
Mozart is the most important composer of Austria.
genitive caseIn seiner Oper ist Paminas Mutter die Königin der Nacht.
In his opera, Pamina’s mother is the queen of the night.
dative caseIn seiner Oper ist die Mutter von Pamina die Königin von der Nacht.
In his opera, the mother of Pamina is the queen of the night.
Tip
In many regions of Germany, you will hear a slightly different construction used when the possessor is a personal names. Rather than using the genitive case, or von + dative, someone might use the dative + a possessive adjective before the owned noun. For example:
- genitive caseowned noun
Das ist Papagenos Flöte.
That’s Papageno’s flute.
- dative casepossessive adjectiveowned noun
Das ist dem Papageno seine Flöte.
That’s Papageno’s flute.
lit. That’s to the Papageno his flute.
This construction is quite common, but also very colloquial. It is often considered to be not very sophisticated stylistically.
What are some German idioms and set phrases that use the genitive case?
Several German idioms or set phrasesNo definition set for set phrasesLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. contain the genitive case. Here are a few of them:
German | English |
|---|---|
sich jemandes/etwas entledigen | to be rid of someone/something |
einer Person/Sache nicht mächtig sein | to not be the master of someone/something |
einer Person/Sache nicht Herr werden | to not be able to master someone/something |
einer Person/Sache überdrüssig sein | to be fed up with someone or something |
jemanden einer Sache bezichtigen | to accuse someone of something |
Summary
In this post, we read about when to use the genitive case and the types of words that have genitive forms. Here’s a summary of what we covered:
Forming the genitive case:
Most genitive nouns will either end with -(e)s or have no special ending.
The genitive definite articles are des, der, des, der, and these endings (SRSR) are reused for several similar words.
Genitive adjectives end with -en if they follow an article, or either -en or -er when they don’t.
Use the genitive case for…
A noun something or someone belongs to
A noun that follows one of the genitive prepositions
In casual speech, Germans will often avoid using the genitive case by using the dative case instead.
Ready to practice what you’ve learned? Check out our exercises on the German genitive case! Or, if you’d rather study, check out our German genitive case reference sheet. Happy learning!
