German

Alternative forms

• Herze (non-standard nowadays)
• Hertz (obsolete)

Noun

Herz n ‎(genitive Herzens, plural Herzen, diminutive Herzchen n or Herzlein n)

1. heart
2. (card games) hearts
3. sweetheart, darling

Declension

Usage notes

• Herz has irregular singular declension and is the only noun of its kind.

• The genitive singular generally takes the ending -ens: des Herzens.
• The dative singular traditionally takes -en: dem Herzen. This form is still the only accepted standard form in many—more or less fixed—expressions, such as im Herzen, von Herzen, zu Herzen, Operation am offenen Herzen ‎(“open-heart surgery”), mit halbem Herzen ‎(“half-heartedly”), and others.

Otherwise, the forms dem Herzen and dem Herz are both acceptable. The latter is predominant in speech, while the former remains the more established form in writing. — But only the bare form is common for Herz as a card suit or a term of endearment, as well as in the phrase mit Herz ‎(“good-hearted”).

Derived terms

See also

• Kardia

German

Verb

herz

1. Imperative singular of herzen.
2. (colloquial) First-person singular present of herzen.