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Nouns are most often preceded by either a definite article
(der, die, das: the) or an indefinite article would use them in English:
Ein Frosch ist ein Tier.
A frog is an animal.
Der Froschkönig will eine Prinzessin küssen – irgendeine Prinzessin!!
The frog king wants to kiss a princess – any princess!!
As in English, there is no indefinite article in German
in front of plural nouns because there is no plural
form of the indefinite article (i.e., just like in English
you couldn’t say “a kings” or “a dwarves,” you can’t
say “ein Könige” or “ein Zwerge” in German).
Thus, you just let the noun stand on its own:
| Könige haben Königreiche.
Kings have kingdoms. |
| Zwerge gibt es oft in Märchen.
There are often dwarves in fairy tales. |
No articles
German typically does not use an article with predicate
nouns (e.g., he is a prince, his name is Egon, etc.)
Exceptions of country names
While most countries are used without definite or indefinite
articles, there are a handful of countries and regions,
which use an article (this is not an exclusive list):
| die Schweiz (feminine) | die Türkei (feminine) | die Ukraine (feminine) |
| die Lausitz (feminine) | die USA (plural) | die Niederlande (plural) |