Kanälen

Kanälen is the dative plural form of the German noun Kanal. The word Kanal refers to a natural or artificial watercourse, such as a riverbed or a man-made conduit, and it is also used in extended senses to mean a channel or pathway in various contexts. In grammatical terms, Kanälen is not a separate concept but the inflected plural used in dative constructions.

In standard German, the nominative and accusative plural is Kanäle (the canals), while the dative plural is Kanälen when a determiner appears as den Kanälen or in bare form after a preposition. This distinction matters in sentence structure and word order. For example: in den Kanälen (in the canals, with a definite article) and in Kanälen (in canals, without a definite article). Other common dative plural phrases include aus den Kanälen (from the canals) and zwischen Kanälen (between canals).

Beyond geography and hydraulics, the term reflects the broader meaning of Kanal in German, which can also denote channels in media, such as television or radio channels, or metaphorical channels of communication. In these senses, the plural forms follow the same grammar rules, with Kanäle as the nominative/accusative plural and Kanälen as the dative plural.

See also: Kanal, Kanäle, Kanalisation, Kanalnetz.