Case Reference: the Article Tables

Two tables. Learn them, and you solve roughly every fifth gap in the onSET, often before you have even finished reading the sentence. Here is why: in the C-test every second word is missing its second half, and strikingly often that missing half is a case ending: dem Mann, einen Tag, des Vaters. That ending almost never lives in the noun itself, it lives in the small article word in front of it. Once you know the forms of der and ein across all four cases by heart, you already have half of every case gap solved.

This article is your reference: the full table of the definite article (der, die, das) and the indefinite article together with kein and the possessive articles. Once you can recall these two tables reliably, all you need at every gap is to know which case is required, and that is exactly what the two trigger articles built on top of this one show you.

This page is the only place the full article tables live. Other chapters such as Function Words & Connectors and Prepositions & Rection link back here for the complete table and only offer the quick self-check drill on their own page.

Quick rule: The case almost never lives in the noun — it lives in the article word to its left. Whoever can recall the two article tables reliably solves every case gap in two steps.

Realistic budget: one focused evening, then two minutes of recall practice a day.

Reference: the definite articles

This is the single most important table in the article. All four cases, all three genders, and the plural. Memorise the masculine column in particular, because that is where the article changes the most (der, den, dem, des).

Two things to remember. In the dative plural not only the article gets an -n (den), but usually the noun does too (mit den Kindern). In the genitive of masculine and neuter nouns, the noun itself also takes an ending (des Vaters) — more on that in Case Triggers: Verbs and Genitive.

Now fill in the missing cells. These are the four that change the most:

Did you feel it? You did not guess those four cells, you read them straight off the surrounding pattern, since every blank follows the same row-and-column logic as the cells already filled in.

Reference: indefinite articles and kein/mein

ein, kein, and the possessive articles (mein, dein, sein ...) all take the same endings. Because ein has no plural, the plural column shows kein so that you can still see the plural endings.

Watch the pattern: in the nominative and accusative, ein has no ending for masculine and neuter (the only exception is einen, masculine accusative). From the dative onward every form carries the full ending, exactly like the definite article (-em, -er, -es).

Fill in the three cells where ein fails to signal gender:

Boss gap

The grid is learned, but this is the case most likely to trip you up: the masculine accusative is the one spot where ein takes a real ending, while the look-alike nominative and neuter forms stay bare.

An adjective can also stand between the article and the noun, and it carries its own ending, with its own rule:

Adjective Endings: The One-Signal Rule

Worth remembering

• The case lives in the article word, not in the noun. The two tables above are your complete reference for that.
• Definite article: der, den, dem, des — the biggest change happens in the masculine.
• The indefinite article and kein/mein follow the same pattern, just without a plural of their own for ein.
• In the dative plural the noun also takes an -n, and in the genitive of masculine and neuter nouns the noun takes an ending — both covered in Case Triggers: Verbs and Genitive.
• Which case belongs in the table in the first place is what the triggers in Case Triggers: Prepositions and Case Triggers: Verbs and Genitive tell you.

Two tables, two forms, four cases: that is the entire subject. Every further gap in the test is just one more application of these same two grids.