Weak Masculine Nouns (N-Declension)
Weak Masculine Nouns (N-Declension)
A small group of masculine nouns — mostly people and animals — add -n or -en in every case except the nominative singular, a pattern English nouns (which never change shape for case) give no preparation for at all.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
The noun itself changes, not just the article
der Junge (subject) → den/dem/des Jungen (every other case)
the boy (subject) → the boy (object, in every other case)
In regular German nouns, only the article changes across cases (der Mann → den Mann → dem Mann); the noun's spelling stays put, matching English, where nouns never change for case at all ('the man' stays 'the man' as subject or object). This small class — nicknamed 'weak masculine nouns' or the N-Declension — breaks that pattern: der Junge ('boy'), der Student ('student'), der Kunde ('customer'), der Löwe ('lion') all add -n or -en to the noun itself in the accusative, dative, and genitive singular. It's easy to forget since it's the noun, not just its article, that has to change.
Who belongs to this group?
der Mensch, der Kollege, der Herr, der Präsident
the human/person, the colleague, the gentleman, the president
Weak masculine nouns are almost all masculine nouns referring to people or animals, frequently ending in -e (der Junge, der Kollege, der Löwe) or borrowed from other languages with a stressed final syllable like -ent, -ist, -and, -at (der Student, der Polizist, der Doktorand, der Soldat). There's no way to derive this from the base form alone — treat it as a short, memorizable list rather than a general rule, and check new nouns of this shape against a dictionary.
der Herr and der Name have small irregularities
der Herr → den/dem Herrn, des Herrn / der Name → den/dem Namen, des Namens
the gentleman / the name
der Herr adds only -n (not -en) in the accusative/dative, and just -n again in the genitive (des Herrn, not des Herren). der Name (and a few others like der Buchstabe, der Gedanke) is a 'mixed' noun: it takes -n in the accusative/dative like the rest of this group, but an extra -s appears in the genitive (des Namens) — borrowing the regular masculine genitive ending on top of the weak -n.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| German | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| der Junge | dair YOONG-eh | boy |
| der Student | dair shtoo-DENT | student |
| der Kunde | dair KOON-deh | customer |
| der Kollege | dair kol-AY-geh | colleague |
| der Herr | dair hair | gentleman / Mr. |
| der Name | dair NAH-meh | name |
| der Mensch | dair mensh | human being / person |
| der Löwe | dair LER-veh | lion |
| der Präsident | dair pray-zee-DENT | president |
| der Polizist | dair poh-lee-TSIST | police officer |