"Ein Mann isst einen Apfel" (a man)-subject eats (an apple)-direct object) and can be expressed with a variety of word order (ex.
"Einen Apfel isst ein Mann" (an apple)-direct object is eaten by (a man)-subject) with little or no change in meaning.
As a fusional language, German marks nouns, pronouns, articles, and adjectives to distinguish case, number, and gender.
However, the nouns themselves retain several ways of forming plurals which often, but not always, correspond with the word's gender and structure in the singular.
Historically, these and several further plural inflections recall the noun declension classes of Proto-Germanic, but in much reduced form.
Certain adjectival pronouns also decline like der: all-, dies-, jed-, jen-, manch-, solch-, welch-.
The general declension pattern is as shown in the following table: Examples: Euer is slightly irregular: when it has an ending, its stem may be reduced to eur-, e.g. dative masculine eurem (also euerem).
Only the following nouns are declined according to case: There is a dative singular marking -e associated with strong masculine or neuter nouns, e.g. der Tod and das Bad, but this is rarely regarded as a required ending in contemporary usage, with the exception of fossilized phrases, such as zum Tode verurteilt ("sentenced to death"), or titles of creative works, e.g. Venus im Bade ("Venus in the Bath"): In these cases, the omission of the ending would be unusual.
It also retains a certain level of productivity in poetry and music where it may be used to help with meter and rhyme, as well as in extremely elevated prose (such as might be found on memorial plaques).
This is a source of confusion for learners, who typically assume it is -es, and also native speakers, who interpret the pronouns called der-words (Der-Wort), for example jed-, as adjectives with no article, to be declined strongly.
[5][6][7] Source:[5] Mixed adjective declension is used when there is a preceding indefinite article (e.g. ein-, kein-), or possessive determiner (mein-, dein-, ihr-, etc.).