The second declension of nouns includes only masculine nouns. In the singular number, they are inflected as follows.
|
singular
|
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| nominative | der | Mensch | Student | Kunde | ||
| genitive | des | Menschen | Studenten | Kunden | ||
| dative | dem | Menschen | Studenten | Kunden | ||
| accusative | den | Menschen | Studenten | Kunden | ||
As one can see in the table above, nouns of the second declension change their form in singular genitive, dative and accusative. The ending for all three cases is -en .
In the plural number, nouns of the second declension are inflected as follows.
|
plural
|
||||||
| nominative | die | Menschen | Studenten | Kunden | ||
| genitive | der | Menschen | Studenten | Kunden | ||
| dative | den | Menschen | Studenten | Kunden | ||
| accusative | die | Menschen | Studenten | Kunden | ||
In the plural the ending for all cases is again -en.
The following noun categories are inflected according to the second declension:
| Examples | |
| German nouns ending in -e | der Experte, der Affe, der Kollege (Exception: der Käse, der See) |
| foreign nouns ending in -ist | der Polizist, der Journalist |
| foreign nouns ending in -ent | der Student, der Präsident |
| foreign nouns ending in -ant | der Demonstrant, der Lieferant |
| foreign nouns ending in -and | der Doktorand |
| nouns without specific characteristics | der Mensch, der Rebell, der Bär, der Held |