First day at work

In this fictional office, Eva meets a new colleague. Some masculine nouns add -n or -en in every singular case except the nominative. Der Kollege is the subject form; den Kollegen is the accusative form.

This pattern is called n-declension. Learn the noun with its pattern. The singular forms den Kollegen and dem Kollegen can look plural, but their articles show singular here.

Jonas introduces a customer and a student on placement. Kunde follows Kollege with -n outside the nominative. Student takes -en. The ending belongs to the noun as well as the article.

Compare der Kunde with den Kunden, and der Student with den Studenten. Both are weak masculine nouns, even though their basic forms end differently.

Later, a journalist visits the office. Journalist takes -en outside the nominative. Not every masculine noun follows this pattern: Chef keeps its basic form in the accusative and dative.

The genitive makes the contrast clear: des Journalisten but des Chefs. Learning a few common weak nouns helps you avoid adding -n to every masculine job title.