Mail

See also: mail and màil

German

Etymology

Abbreviation of E-Mail; the E- being redundant in German.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛɪ̯l/, /meːl/
• Homophone: Mehl (according to the latter pronunciation)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Noun

Mail (predominantly) f (genitive Mail, plural Mails) or
Mail (alternatively in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland) n (strong, genitive Mails, plural Mails)

1. (slightly informal) alternative form of E-Mail (“e-mail”)

   Die Bewerbungen können per Post oder Mail eingereicht werden.

   The applications can be handed in by mail or e-mail.

Usage notes

• Usually feminine; see E-Mail for more.
• The form Mail is predominant in informal contexts, but is now also a common variant in formal language. In the prestigious newspaper Die Zeit, the short form was used about 28% of the time between 2009 and 2018, while the full form was used 72% of the time.

Declension

Declension of Mail [feminine (predominantly)]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Mail	die	Mails
genitive	einer	der	Mail	der	Mails
dative	einer	der	Mail	den	Mails
accusative	eine	die	Mail	die	Mails

or

Declension of Mail [neuter (alternatively in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland), strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	Mail	die	Mails
genitive	eines	des	Mails	der	Mails
dative	einem	dem	Mail	den	Mails
accusative	ein	das	Mail	die	Mails