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
Also: mother and father
GERMAN DICTIONARY
die Eltern
- A1
- Noun
- People & Family
parents, mother and father
/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
- 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
Word formation and word family
How the word is formed and its reviewed lexical family.
Word family
- Elternteil
- Elternschaft