24.2 Ein words
See 22.3 (p. 37) and 30.3 (p. 55).
(a)kein, irgendein ‘not a/not any’, ‘any’The negative kein is an ein word, as is irgendein:
Ich habe keine Lust, ins Kino zu gehen.
I don’t want to go to the cinema.
Wir wollen doch nicht irgendein Auto kaufen.
We don’t want to buy any (old) car.
Note the use of was für ein ‘what sort of’. The case of ein here depends on the phrase’s
function in the sentence:
Was für ein Mensch war er?
What sort of a person was he?
In was für einem Büro arbeitet ihr?
What sort of an office do you work in?
Was für einen Wagen hast du gekauft?
What sort of car have you bought?
(b)beide ‘both’, irgendwelche ‘some/any’ (the plural of irgendein) and sämtliche
‘all’ are used only in the plural.
Sie kennt beide Schwestern.
She knows both sisters.
Hast du hier irgendwelche Freunde?
Do you have any friends here?
Sie haben sämtliche Brötchen gekauft.
They bought all the bread rolls. For the use of alle see 44.2–4 (pp. 119–20).
(c) The undeclined solch is used before ein (usually only in fairly formal written style):
Solch einen Film sieht man nicht jeden Tag.
It is not every day that one sees a film like that.
Alternatively ein can come first, in which case the declined form solcher is used:
Einen solchen Film sieht man nicht jeden Tag.
The undeclined manch is rarely found in modern German.See also^58 (pp. 146–8).
25 Gender
German has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. In most instances
grammatical gender is not based on natural gender. Although there are a few rules
which can help predict the gender of a noun, the following can only ever serve as
guidelines; many exceptions will be found. The safest approach to gender is always to
learn each noun with the appropriate definite article (der, die or das).25
Gender