Genitiv in German

We have repeatedly discussed with you Dativ and Akkusativ, and next to them we often mentioned Genetiv (genitive), but we never spoke about it separately. The fact is that this case occurs much less frequently than the others, and recently it is dying out altogether. Dativ is increasingly used instead. But to know it is necessary, Genetiv is still actively used in written German. And we want to learn to speak correctly.

The main function of this case is to determine the affiliation. Answers the question (whose? Whose? And so on).
How to form a genetiv:

Maskulin: ein / der Vater (Nominativ) – eines / des Vaters (Genetiv) – father (who?) – father (whose?);
Neutrum: ein / das Buch – eines / des Buches – a book (what?) – a book (what?);
Feminin: eine / die Frau – einer / der Frau – a woman (who?) – a woman (whose?);
Plural: – / die Leute – – / der Leute – people (who?) – people (whose?);

As you can see, so far nothing complicated. In masculine and neuter nouns, the definite and indefinite article changes and the ending “- (e) s” is added, while in feminine and plural nouns, only the article changes.
And now we will consider examples of the use:

Die Kleider des Vaters – father’s clothes;
Das Auto einer Mutter – mother’s car.

Can be used with pronouns. In this case, possessive pronouns will replace the articles and get the endings “-es” for the middle and masculine gender and the endings “-er” for the feminine gender and the plural:

Das Buch meines Kindes – a book of my child;
Das Kind unserer Verwandten – the child of our relatives.

What to do with the names that are used without articles? They simply add the ending “s” (as in English). If the name ends with “s”, “z” or “x”, then only an apostrophe is added to the name:

Das Peters Fahrrad – Peter’s bicycle;
Das Annas Fahrrad – Anna’s bicycle.

Interesting to know!

Today we will talk about the dialects of a place (answering the question “where?”) And directions (answering the question “where?”) In German.
Let’s start with adverbs that answer the question “wo?” (“Where?”)

But, as we have said, this case is gradually dying out. Increasingly, in oral speech they say “von + Dativ”:

das Fahrrad von meinem Bruder – my brother’s bicycle;
das Fahrrad von meiner Schwester – my sister’s bike.

Membership is not the only Genetiv feature. It is also used with prepositions: “außerhalb” (“out”, “for”), “innerhalb” (“during”, “inside”), “während” (“throughout”), “aufgrund” (“due to “),” Infolge “(” in consequence “),” wegen “(” because of “),” trotz “(” in spite of “),” (an) statt “(” instead of “). It is not so difficult to learn, if you pay attention that all these prepositions require a genitive case in Russian.

As you have probably got used to, learning German, there are exceptions to this subject, but about them later. Speech will talk about a weak declination (n-Deklination).