The Nullartikel in German | A Coffee Break with Thomas
Coffee Break German
Radio Lingua Network
4.7 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this mini-episode, Thomas helps you unlock the mystery of the Nullartikel, when German nouns don’t need an article! ☕💡
We’ll look at examples from meals, professions, languages, and abstract ideas, and show how dropping the article can make your German sound more natural. With short, practical examples and a few exercises, you’ll quickly get a feel for this sometimes tricky grammar point.
Perfect for learners wanting to improve fluency in conversation, or anyone curious about how German handles nouns without a definite or indefinite article.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I am Thomas from Coffee Break German and today I want to start our short German lesson with a story. |
| 0:10.0 | I sitse in Hamburg at a haven. |
| 0:15.0 | I drink water and eat fish brutes. |
| 0:19.0 | I see the shiff and and be neogiric, |
| 0:23.8 | how the life as captain-voul is. |
| 0:27.7 | Now, if you think we are talking about Hamburg today, |
| 0:32.1 | or ships or the life as a captain, |
| 0:35.0 | I have to disappoint you. |
| 0:36.7 | Sorry. |
| 0:38.0 | The thing that I want to draw your attention to is the lack of articles in front of many |
| 0:45.3 | nouns in the sentence. And this non-existent article is called the null article in German. |
| 0:53.7 | And today we are having a better look at it. |
| 1:02.4 | So, before we do anything else, |
| 1:05.6 | let's take a look at that first sentence again. |
| 1:09.7 | I sitse |
| 1:11.2 | in Hamburg |
| 1:13.1 | at a haven't. |
| 1:15.2 | Trinke water |
| 1:16.1 | and |
| 1:17.2 | eat fishbruchin. |
| 1:19.9 | I see |
| 1:20.5 | the ships and |
... |
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