92. A, An, One, No, Not One, Not Any - Ein and Kein

92.  A, An, One, No, Not One, Not Any - Ein  and Kein

We have already seen how German nouns have gender. We saw how feminine nouns have die as their definite article (the), masculine nouns have der and neuter nouns have das. Today we can move on to a similar concept when it comes to the indefinite article. This translates in English the words  a ,  an,  or  one.

So instead of saying the man  or  the woman, we will be saying  a / one man or a / one woman. We use an in English if a vowel follows at the start of the word, e.g. an apple,  an orange etc.

I thought we might take a chance here to look at family members at the same time as looking at the German words  ein  and  eine.  For masculine and neuter words, we use  ein  and for feminine words we use eine. This applies to all words that are feminine including words like Orange or Klasse even though they are objects.

So  ........  the brother   =  der Bruder   and  a / one brother  =   ein Bruder

Equally    the book   =    das Buch      and  a / one  book      =  ein Buch

But ........  the sister   =    die Schwester and  a / one sister   =   eine Schwester

If we want to say    no / not a / not one  brother  or  no book  or   no sister  we simply put a k in front of ein or eine and we get  kein  or  keine.

So .........  no,  not one, not a brother   =   kein Bruder

and .......  no,  not one,  not a book      =  kein Buch

and  ......  no,  not one,  not a sister      =  keine Schwester

Ok, so why don't you try your luck with family members, using  ein  or eine ...

[         ]  Bruder;    [          ]  Schwester;   [         ]  Mutter;         [         ] Vater;      

[         ]  Tante;      [          ] Onkel;           [         ]  Großvater;   [        ] Großmutter

[         ]  Kusine;    [          ] Cousin;         [         ]  Neffe;          [         ]  Nichte

Rhine River Ferry Stop near Bingen