TOPIC · Miscellaneous (Anders)

Cases in German

After this lesson you can identify the four German cases and build simple sentences with Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ and Genitiv correctly.

Cases (Kasus) show what role a word has in the sentence. In German, articles and some pronouns change their form: der, die, das, ein, mein and so on. Here you learn the four Kasus and how to build simple sentences with them.

Overview of the four Kasus

Kasus	Function in the sentence	Question words	Example	Meaning
Nominativ	subject	Wer? / Was?	Der Junge spielt Fußball.	The boy plays football.
Genitiv	possession / belonging	Wessen?	Das Buch des Lehrers ist neu.	The teacher's book is new.
Dativ	indirect object	Wem?	Ich gebe dem Kind einen Ball.	I give the child a ball.
Akkusativ	direct object	Wen? / Was?	Ich sehe den Hund.	I see the dog.

Note: In spoken German, Genitiv is less frequent, but you must understand it.

Key articles at a glance (singular)

Kasus	masculine	neuter	feminine
Nominativ	der	das	die
Akkusativ	den	das	die
Dativ	dem	dem	der
Genitiv	des	des	der

You need these forms all the time. Learn them together with examples.

Nominativ: the subject

Nominativ answers Wer? / Was? and marks the subject.

Der Mann arbeitet. – The man works.
Das Kind schläft. – The child is sleeping.
Die Frau ist Lehrerin. – The woman is a teacher.

After sein, werden, bleiben, you often have Nominativ:

Das ist mein Bruder. – That is my brother.

Akkusativ: direct object

Akkusativ answers Wen? / Was?

Ich habe einen Hund. – I have a dog.
Wir kaufen das Brot. – We are buying the bread.

Many verbs always take Akkusativ, e.g. haben, kaufen, sehen, hören, kennen.

Dativ: indirect object

Dativ answers Wem? and often shows who receives something.

Ich gebe dem Kind einen Ball. – I give the child a ball.
Er hilft der Frau. – He helps the woman.

Typical Dativ verbs: helfen, danken, gefallen.

Genitiv: possession

Genitiv answers Wessen? and shows possession or belonging.

Das Auto des Mannes ist neu. – The man's car is new.
Die Tasche der Frau ist schwarz. – The woman's bag is black.

In everyday speech, many prepositions use Dativ instead of Genitiv, but Genitiv is still important in written German.

Small practice idea

Find 5 Nominativ subjects in a short text.
Make 3 sentences with ich + an Akkusativ object.
Make 3 sentences with ich gebe + Dativ + Akkusativ.

summaryEn: After this lesson you can identify the four German cases and build simple sentences with Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ and Genitiv correctly.