NOUNS part2(§7 – §16)

§7  Many dictionaries show noun plurals by using a kind of shorthand: der Mann, ¨-er
      This entry means that the word Mann is masculine (der Mann), that the plural adds an
      -er to the stem, and that the stem vowel (Mann) is umlauted (Männer). (Note the
       similarity to English ‘man—men’.) Dictionary entries for the other words listed above are
           die Flasche, -n         die Wurst, ¨-e              der Engländer, –
           das Ticket, -s           die Kanadierin, -nen
§8   Gender is irrelevant in the plural. That is, regardless of gender, the dictionary forms of
       all plural nouns are identified by die: die Männer, die Tickets, die Kanadierinnen.
       This does not mean that all nouns somehow “become” feminine in the plural!
§9   In addition to gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and number (singular, plural), all
       German nouns appear in one of four different cases according to their function within a
       sentence.
§10 Nouns can show possession in a number of ways:
        a) Personal names add an -s, just as English names do. This is true of both
            masculine and feminine names: Karls Freundin, Martinas Mutter.
       b) Phrases such as ‘my father’s friend’ are expressed in the form
            the friend of my father
           One common equivalent uses the dative preposition von:
                                                   meinem Vater
                der Freund   von   ⇶ meiner Schwester
                                                  meinen Eltern
       c) Written German often uses the genitive case (without von!) to express possession.
            The genitive case is sometimes encountered in spoken German as well:
                                                  meines Vater
               der Freund             ⇶ meiner Schwester
                                                  meiner Eltern
       • In the genitive case, most singular masculine and neuter nouns end
         with an -s. An -e- is often inserted before the -s after nouns of one
         syllable. The article or other limiting word also ends in -es:
             NOMINATIVE           GENITIVE
             der Vater                   Vorname des Vaters
             der Großvater           Freunde meines Großvaters
             das Jahr                    Ende des Jahres
       • Feminine nouns have no characteristic genitive ending. The article
         or other limiting word, if there is one, ends in -er:
         die Kinder meiner Tante        der Preis der Fahrkarte
       • Plural nouns have no characteristic genitive ending. The article or
         other limiting word, if there is one, ends in -er:
         die Eltern meiner Freunde
       • Spoken German tends to avoid genitive constructions. Speakers
         most often paraphrase by using the preposition von with the dative.
         See Nouns §10b above.
       NOTE: The genitive is commonly used to express indefinite past and future time,