Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative. Learn the German Cases.

There are three genders in German.

1. masculine,
2. feminine,
3. neuter genders.

• Every noun has a gender.
• Every noun starts with a capital letter.

The word ‘the’ in German takes several different forms.

There are four basic forms, unlike English which just has the one form - 'the'.
( ... simplicity itself... although a few hundred years ago it was different ... but that is another story ...)

English	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
the	der	die	das	die

It is bad enough not just having four basic forms to learn. It gets worse...

The forms all change at certain times, depending on the role of the noun in a sentence.

However they do follow PATTERNS. And the patterns follow rules and are learnable.

Knowing these patterns is CRUCIAL to understanding and building your German language competence.

Learning these basics very thoroughly is important before moving on.

Be very clear on one thing here.

All these cases are not very fair on the learner of German, but that is the way it is, and they actually follow a logical and structure pattern, which is easier once you can grasp these basics.

Nominative - Accusative - Genitive - Dative examples

Let's look at some different Nominative - Accusative - Genitive - Dative examples by first reviewing some basic German grammar...

• der Hund
  the dog – is a masculine word.

• die Katze
  the cat is a feminine word.

• das Schwein
  the pig is a neuter word.

• die Schweine
  das Schwein becomes die Schweine in the plural.

1. Subject
   
2. Object
   
3. Indirect Object (or Receiver of the Action)
   
4. Possession
   

These four cases above take the following names:

Nominative
Accusative
Dative
Genitive

What this means is that when you take a neuter word like das Schwein, the word 'das' changes to something else if the pig is now the object in the sentence, rather than the subject.

When forming sentences:

1. the subject is expressed in the Nominative.
This is the ‘normal’ case, in that you cannot have a sentence without a subject, so that there is always a nominative case in any sentence.

2. the object is expressed in the Accusative,

3. the indirect object in the Dative,

4. and possession in the Genitive.

Nominative Case in German

This is a fancy way of saying the case where the noun is the subject.

Der Hund heißt Spot.
The dog is called Spot.

Here the dog is the subject.
So in this example, the noun, der Hund is in the nominative case.

Die Katze miaut.
The cat miaows.

Again, in this example, the noun, die Katze is in the nominative case, because die Katze is the subject.

Das Schwein ist dick.
The pig is fat.

Again, in this example, the noun, das Schwein is in the nominative case.

Accusative Case in German

The accusative case is a fancy way of referring to the noun when it is the object of a sentence.

The accusative endings are below.

English	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
the	den	die	das	die

Notice in the table there is one little sneaky change.

The masculine word for 'the', which is der has become 'den'.

This is what happens to the mascculine word 'the' when its noun becomes an object, rather than the subject of a sentence.

So DER DEN!

Have a look at some examples.

Der Vater füttert den Hund.
The father feeds the dog.

• The father, der Vater, is the subject ( nominative ).
• The dog is the object ( accusative ).
• Both are masculine, but for the subject - (nominative case) the form of 'the' is der.
• for the object (accusative case) the form of 'the' is now den.

Der Hund füttert den Vater.
The dog feeds the father.

The dog is now the subject.
The father is now the object.

>>>Notice how the definite article (‘the’) changes with the case.

To repeat: Der now becomes den for a masculine in this, the accusative case, where the noun is object.

Die Mutter liebt die Katze.
The mother loves the cat.

Die Katze liebt die Mutter.The cat loves the mother.

>>>Notice the feminine ‘die’ does not change in the accusative.

Der Metzger schlachtet das Schwein.
The butcher slaughters the pig.

Das Schwein schlachtet den Metzger.
The pig slaughters the butcher.

>>>Notice the neuter article ‘das’ does not change in the accusative case, but ...

... the butcher, when he got slaughtered by the pig, he is now an object, so he became den ...

... in accordance with the rule for the masculine case does change from ‘der’ to ‘den’.

Work through these examples a few times before you move on to ...

Dative Case in German

The Dative Case applies when the noun is the Indirect Object or to be more precise, the Receiver of the Action in a sentence.

English	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
the	dem	der	dem	den

Der Vater zeigt dem Hund den Knochen.
The father shows the dog the bone.

Here the dog is the Indirect Object or the Receiver of the Object.

The dog therefore takes the Dative Case.

Here we have three different noun cases shown.

The father is the subject, therefore the article ‘the’ takes the nominative case – ‘der’.

The dog, dem Hund, is the indirect object (or the receiver of the object).So the aticle for the dog is in the Dative case. Der becomes dem in this case.

The bone is the object, and is in the accusative and ‘der’ becomes ‘den’.

Die Mutter gibt dem Schwein das Futter.
The mother gives the pig the feed.

• Here the mother, die Mutter is the subject and therefore in the nominative.
• The pig, is the indirect object, (the receiver of the object) and therefore das Schwein becomes dem Schwein.
• Das Futter is the object so it is in the accusative, so ‘das’ therefore stays the same.

Here the mother, die Mutter is the subject and therefore in the nominative.

The cat, (normally die Katze), is the indirect object, (the receiver of the object) and therefore die Katze becomes der Katze.

This is another dative case.

Learning the German Genitive Case

The fourth case is the Genitive Case.

Genitive is the case of possession.

Or more simply, it answers the question, “Whose is it?”

English	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
the	des	der	des	der

Der Schwanz des Hundes wedelt.
The tail of the dog wags.

Here the tail, der Schwanz, is the subject so it is in the nominative.

Whose tail is it?
The tail belongs to the dog, so the dog now takes the genitive case.

Normally the dog is der Hund. But here, as the owner of the tail, but not the subject, nor the object, the dog’s article changes from der to des.

The noun, der Hund, takes an ending that matches the genitive ending and becomes des Hundes.

Masculine and neuter nouns add an ‘s’ at the end, or an ‘es’ to make it sound OK.

Das Fell der Katze ist weich.
The fur of the cat is soft.

The fur, das Fell is the subject so it takes the nominative.

Whose is it?Die Katze is the owner of the fur, so die Katze becomes der Katze.

Sex change ALERT!(This can be a bit confusing for the learner because here the feminine word die Katze appears to suddenly become masculine)

Der Stall des Schweines ist schmutzig.
The sty of the pig is dirty.

Here the sty is nominative, der Stall.Whose sty is it?The pig is the owner of the sty, so it takes the genitive and in this case, the normally das Schwein becomes des Schweines.

Die Ställe der Schweine sind schmutzig.
The sties of the pigs are dirty.

Here the sties are now plural, so they retain ‘die’ being nominative.

Whose sties are they?
The pigs are the owners of the sties, and they are plural, but being in the genitive case die Schweine (plural of das Schwein) becomes der Schwein.

Hint: If you see a possessive case ask yourself “Whose is it?” to determine the genitive case.

Looking at this another way.

The articles change depending on whether they are the

Subject – Object - Indirect Object – Possession.

Which is another way of saying:

Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative

So Masculine articles change like this:

der -> den -> dem -> des

Der Hund -> den Hund -> dem Hund -> des Hundes

Feminine articles change like this:

die -> die -> der -> der

die Katze -> die Katze -> der Katze -> der Katze

Neuter articles change like this:

das -> das -> dem -> des

das Schwein -> das Schwein -> dem Schwein -> des Schweins

Plural articles change like this:

die -> die -> den -> der

die Schweine -> die Schweine -> den Schweinen -> der Schweine

Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative Suammarised. Learning German Cases in a Table

Home | Free German Lessons | Contact

Learn German Help
©2004-2008. Transcity Properties Ltd, 32 Alverton, Great Linford
Milton Keynes, MK14 5EF, Bucks, United Kingdom