Definition
A child’s mother and father, or the people who permanently fulfil the parental role.
Translations
- English
- parents
- Français
- parents
- Türkçe
- ebeveynler
- Polski
- rodzice
- Русский
- родители
- Українська
- батьки
GERMAN DICTIONARY
die Eltern
- A1
- Noun
- People & Family
parents
/diː ˈɛl.tɐn/
Meaning and translations
Meaning, definition and translations of this sense.
Grammar & classification
Main grammatical and classification properties of the word.
- Article
- die
- Gender
- —
- Plural
- Eltern
- Part of speech
- Noun
- CEFR level
- A1
- Morphology
- Simple word
- Topics
- People & FamilyPrimary
Usage examples
Examples showing real usage and grammatical forms.
- Meine Eltern wohnen in Berlin.NominativPlur.My parents live in Berlin.
- Ich besuche meine Eltern am Wochenende.AkkusativPlur.I visit my parents at the weekend.
- Sie spricht mit ihren Eltern über die Schule.DativPlur.She talks to her parents about school.
- Die Meinung der Eltern ist wichtig.GenitivPlur.The parents’ opinion is important.
Pronunciation and forms
Pronunciation and audio for the lemma and important forms.
-
Lemma
Eltern/ˈɛl.tɐn/
-
Article phrase
die Eltern/diː ˈɛl.tɐn/
-
Plural
Eltern/ˈɛl.tɐn/
Declension / Forms
How the noun changes across German cases and singular or plural.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominativ | — | die Eltern |
| Akkusativ | — | die Eltern |
| Dativ | — | den Eltern |
| Genitiv | — | der Eltern |
Usage and collocations
Typical constructions, prepositions and word combinations.
- Collocationdie Eltern besuchen
- Prepositional constructionmit den Eltern sprechenmit + Dativ
- Prepositional constructionbei den Eltern wohnenbei + Dativ
- Prepositional constructionvon den Elternvon + Dativ
- CollocationEltern haben
- CollocationEltern werden
Semantic relations
How this meaning relates to other meanings and easily confused words.
- Semantically relatedMutter — mother
Mutter denotes the female parent; Eltern, by contrast, encompasses Mutter, the father, or both together.
- Semantically relatedVater — father
Vater denotes the male parent; Eltern, by contrast, encompasses Vater, the mother, or both together.
- Semantically relatedFamilie — family
Eltern denotes the people in a child’s parental role; Familie is broader and may also include other related or connected people.
Word formation and word family
How the word is formed and its reviewed lexical family.
Formation typeSimple word
„Eltern“ is synchronically a simple noun with no visibly derived structure.
Word family
- Elternteil
- Elternschaft
- Elternteil