The document discusses the four German cases: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. It explains what each case means grammatically and provides examples of how the endings change for articles, pronouns, and adjectives in each case.
The document discusses the four German cases: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. It explains what each case means grammatically and provides examples of how the endings change for articles, pronouns, and adjectives in each case.
The document discusses the four German cases: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. It explains what each case means grammatically and provides examples of how the endings change for articles, pronouns, and adjectives in each case.
The document discusses the four German cases: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. It explains what each case means grammatically and provides examples of how the endings change for articles, pronouns, and adjectives in each case.
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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
3/18/2016 6:35 PM
German Cases, Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive
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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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3/18/2016 6:35 PM
German Cases, Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive
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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German Alphabet German Numbers German Phrases German Articles German Cases German Pronouns German Nouns German Verbs German Adjectives
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