Deklinieren

Deklinieren, or to decline, is the process in grammar of changing the form of a word to express grammatical categories such as case, number, and gender. It applies to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and determiners in languages with a case system. Verbs have their own paradigm through conjugation, which is usually described separately from declension.

In German, the best-known example, nouns and pronouns are declined for four cases: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive, and for number (singular and plural). Examples with the noun Mann: nominative singular der Mann, accusative singular den Mann, dative singular dem Mann, genitive singular des Mannes; nominative plural die Männer, accusative plural die Männer, dative plural den Männern, genitive plural der Männer. These endings show how a word’s role in a sentence affects its form.

Adjectives and determiners also decline. With a definite article, adjectives take weak endings: der gute Mann (Nom Masc Sing), des guten Mannes (Gen Masc Sing), dem guten Mann (Dat Masc Sing), den guten Mann (Acc Masc Sing); in the plural: die guten Männer (Nom/Acc Pl), der guten Männer (Gen Pl), den guten Männern (Dat Pl). After an indefinite article or no article, adjectives take strong or mixed endings depending on the determiner’s information: ein guter Mann (Nom Masc Sing), eines guten Mannes (Gen Masc Sing), den guten Mann (Acc Masc Sing), die guten Männer (Nom/Acc Pl, etc.).

Deklinieren is a core concept in languages with explicit case systems and contrasts with languages that have little or no inflection.