Indefinite articles
In English, we use indefinite articles to specify the context of its associated object, for instance: this squirrel has a different meaning than a squirrel, as the former is directed at a specific squirrel while the latter can be pointed at any squirrel.
dieses Eichhörnchen | this squirrel |
jedes Eichhörnchen | each, every squirrel |
jenes Eichhörnchen | that squirrel |
(ein) manches Eichhörnchen | many (a) squirrel |
(ein) solches Eichhörnchen | such (a) squirrel |
welches Eichhörnchen | which, what squirrel |
alle Eichhörnchen | all squirrels |
You may have noticed on the table that alle uses the plural of squirrel, this is because alle is the only indefinite article which can't be used in its singular.
Unlike the three definite articles, indefinite articles have different endings for each combination of gender and case. Luckily for us these endings are regular so indefinite articles share the same endings as dies-:
Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
Nominative | dieser | diese | dieses | diese |
Accusative | diesen | diese | dieses | diese |
Dative | diesem | dieser | diesem | diesen |
Genitive | dieses | dieser | dieses | dieser |
Just like with der, die, das, the associated word of the indefinite article, the der- word, gets a weak noun ending if necessary, such as -n on dative, plural.
Dieses and jenes can also appear as the latter and the former respectively. In this case these are not used like regular articles and don't follow up with its noun.