German Cases, Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive

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German cases are four: the nominative case (subject of the sentence); the accusative case
(the direct object); the dative case (the indirect object), and the genitive case (possessive).
Cases are not something strange to English, pronouns for example use a certain kind of
cases, for example we say he speaks, and give him and not give he, did you see
how he became him in the second example, well the same thing happens in German,
the only difference is that in German its much more widely used, not only in pronouns,
even nouns/ adjectives/ articles use the same thing. The German case indicates the role
of an element in a sentence.

German Nominative
The nominative is the easiest case in German and also the one dictionaries use as the
standard form of nouns, adjectives, articlesand refers to the subject of the sentence. The
teacher went to school, The teacher is the subject of the sentence, and therefore The
teacher is nominative.
So it will take the nominative form in German, which is Der Lehrer.
Below is a table of some forms of Nominative, you will only know the difference when
you will go through the 3 other cases (accusative, Dative, Genitive).
German Nominative Case
Indefinite
Personal
Articles
Pronouns
Der, die, das, die Ein, Eine, Ein
Ich, du, er, sie,
(they all means
(they all mean a, wir, ihr, sie.
the)
an)
(I, you, he, she...)
Definite Articles

Adjectives (masc., fem,

neuter, plural)
Weier, weie, weies,
weie
(all these forms mean
white)

These are just some examples to show the nominative form of some elements such as
articles, pronouns, adjectives. Note that the nominative case can be used in a much wider
scope such as in Nouns, interrogative pronounswhat comes next will help you notice the
difference between Nominative and what the other 3 German cases.

German Accusative
Now we will learn the second case in German which is the accusative, the good news is
that apart from the masculine, the other 2 genders + the plural (feminine, neuter and plural)
look just like the Nominative. Now lets learn what the accusative really is. The accusative
case is considered the direct object. I see the teacher, the teacher is the direct object of
the sentence, and therefore would take the accusative form, and since the teacher is

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German Cases, Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive

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http://german.speak7.com/german_cases.htm

masculine it will become in German den Lehrer and not der Lehrer as in the
nominative case. I see the teacher = Ich sehe den Lehrer.

Definite Articles
Den, die, das,
die
(they all means
the)

German Accusative Case

Indefinite
Personal
Articles
Pronouns
Einen, Eine, Ein mich, dich, ihn,
(they all mean a, sie,
an)
uns, euch, sie.
(me, you, him,
her...)

Adjectives (masc., fem,

neuter, plural)
Weien, weie, weies,
weie
(all these forms mean
white)

Lets get adjectives involved as well. I see the young teacher = ich sehe den jungen
Lehrer. Young in German is jung, but since were using the accusative case, then the
adjective should copy the article it follows, which is den/ the = masculine, so den
jungen. If you look at the table above you will understand why we added en after the
adjective jung. Now lets get personal pronouns involved. I see him = ich sehe ihn.
Easy, isnt it!

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German Cases, Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive

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German Dative
Now things will get serious because the dative case is very important in German, and it
also changes in all the 3 genders + the plural (masculine, feminine, neuter and plural). But
first lets learn what the Dative means. The Dative in German is just like the indirect object
in English, or in other words, its like the receiver of the direct object. So for example: I
give the book to him, I is the subject of the sentence, the book is the direct object, and
him is the receiver, therefore also called the indirect object, in which were interested
when it comes to the dative case.

Definite Articles
Dem, der, dem,
den (they all
means to the)

German Dative Case

Indefinite
Personal
Articles
Pronouns
Einem, Einer,
mir, dir, ihm, ihr,
Einem
uns, euch, ihnen.
(they all mean to (to me, to you, to
a, to an)
him, to her...)

Adjectives (masc., fem,

neuter)
Weien, weien, weien,
weien
(all these forms mean to
white)

Usually the equivalent of the dative case in English would include to, like our example
above, I give the book to him, I send it to him, I show it to him but in German that to
is usually included in the expression used, for example to him = ihm to the = dem
so its not that complicated after all.

German Genitive
Finally we will learn the genitive in German. Its not used as often as the other cases, but
still has its own importance, because the genitive in German means possession, or in other
words it means the expression of or s. The book of my teacher = das Buch meines
Lehrers.

Definite Articles
Des, der, des,
der (they all
means of the)

German Genitive Case

Indefinite
Personal
Articles
Pronouns
Eines, Einer,
mir, dir, ihm, ihr,
Eines
uns, euch, ihnen.
(they all mean of (to me, to you, to
a, of an)
him, to her...)

Adjectives (masc., fem,

neuter)
Weien, weien, weien,
weie
(all these forms mean
white)

Note that nouns in the masculine and neuter take an s at the end, as in our example: The
book of my teacher = das Buch meines Lehrers.
Feminine and plural nouns dont take any s at the end. More detailed information
would be in the German Nouns page. Also you can check out the adjectives and articles
page to see how they form in different cases with some examples. Good luck!

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