ehemaligen

Ehemaligen is a form of the German adjective ehemalig, meaning former or ex, used to indicate that someone or something no longer holds a particular status, office, or role. It is commonly found before nouns to describe past positions, memberships, or affiliations.

As an attributive adjective, ehemaligen is declined to match the gender, number, and case of the noun it modifies. For example: nominative and accusative plural: die ehemaligen Präsidenten; dative plural: mit den ehemaligen Präsidenten; dative masculine singular: dem ehemaligen Präsidenten; dative feminine singular: mit der ehemaligen Präsidentin. The form appears in various cases and numbers depending on the sentence structure.

In addition to its role as an attributive adjective, ehemaligen can be capitalized when used as a noun to denote former members of a group. In that usage, forms such as Die Ehemaligen or die Ehemaligen der Partei are common, referring collectively to people who previously held a specified position.

Etymology and usage notes: the word derives from the root ehemal(e) meaning formerly, with the standard German adjective suffix -ig. It is closely related to the adverb ehemals, which means formerly but is not declined like the adjective. Ehemaligen is widely used in formal and semi-formal contexts, such as discussions of politics, organizations, or institutional history, and it can be translated as “former,” “ex-,” or “past.”