The Four German Cases

Part 1: Summary Summary | Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Genitive Werfall | Wenfall | Wemfall | Wesfall Nominativ | Akkusativ | Dativ | Genitiv English also has cases, but they are only apparent with pronouns, not with nouns, as in German. When "he" changes to "him" in English, that's exactly the same thing that happens when der changes to den in German (and er changes to ihn). This allows German to have more flexibility in word order, as in the examples below, in which the nominative (subject) case is red: Der Hund beit den Mann. The dog bites the man. Den Mann beit der Hund. The dog bites the man. Beit der Hund den Mann? Is the dog biting the man? Beit den Mann der Hund? Is the dog biting the man? Since English does not have the same case markers (der/den), it must depend on word order. If you say "Man bites dog" in English, rather than "Dog bites man," you change the meaning. In German the word order can be changed for emphasis (as above)without altering the basic meaning. The following charts show the four cases with the definite article (der, die, das), theindefinite article and the third-person pronouns (er, sie, es). Changes from the nominative (subject) case are indicated in red. For more about each case, see the links below. Definite Articles (the) Fall Case Nom Akk Dat Gen Fall Case Nom Akk Dat Gen Mnnlich Masculine der den dem des Mnnlich Masculine ein einen einem eines Weiblich Feminine die die der der Indefinite Articles (a/an) Weiblich Feminine eine eine einer einer Schlich Neuter ein ein einem eines Mehrzahl Plural keine* keine* keinen* keiner* Schlich Neuter das das dem des Mehrzahl Plural die die den der

*Note: keine is the negative of eine, which has no plural form. But keine (no/none) can be used in the plural: "Er hat keine Bcher." (He has no books.) - "In Venedig gibt es keineAutos." (In Venice there are no cars.)

The Germanic word for each case reflects how that case functions in the use of forms of wer(who): der Werfall (nom.), der Wenfall (acc.), der Wemfall (dat.) and der Wesfall (gen.). For more details about each case and to read articles related to the cases, see the links below. PRONOUNS Summary | Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Genitive Werfall | Wenfall | Wemfall | Wesfall Nominativ | Akkusativ | Dativ | Genitiv As we stated in the first part of this summary, English also has cases, but they are only apparent with pronouns, not with nouns, as in German. This section of our summary is devoted to the German pronouns, which also take on different forms (i.e., are "declined") in the various cases. Just as nominative "I" changes to objective "me" in English, nominative ichchanges to accusative mich in German. Oberve the following German-English examples in which the pronouns are red: Er (der Hund) beit den Mann. He (the dog) bites the man. Ihn (den Mann) hat der Hund gebissen. The dog bit him (the man). Wen hat er gebissen? Whom did he bite? Wer ist das? Who is that? Du hast mich doch gesehen? You did see me (didn't you)? Die hat keine Ahnung. She/That one has no idea. Most of the German personal pronouns have different forms in each of the four cases, but it can be helpful to observe that some (similar to English "you") do not always change. An example is "she"/sie (also "they"/sie and "you"/Sie). This pronoun, regardless of its meaning, remains the same in the nominative and accusative cases. In the dative it changes toihnen/Ihnen, while the possessive form is ihr/Ihr. Two German pronouns use the same form in both the accusative and the dative (uns, euch). The third-person pronouns (he, she, it) follow the rule that only the masculine gender shows any change in the accusative case. Neither neuter es nor feminine sie changes. But in the dative case, all of the pronouns take on uniquely dative forms. The following chart shows the personal pronouns in all four cases. Changes from the nominative (subject) case are indicated in red. For more about each case, see the links below. Third-Person Pronouns (er, sie, es) Fall Case Nom Akk Mnnlich masc. er he ihn him Weiblich fem. sie she sie her Schlich neut. es it es it Mehrzahl plural sie they sie them

Dat Gen* (Poss.)

ihm (to) him sein his

ihr (to) her ihr her

ihm (to) it sein its

ihnen (to) them ihre their

*Note: The possessive third-person pronoun forms shown here do not indicate the various additional case endings (genitive, dative, etc.) they might have in a typical sentence in various situations (i.e., seiner, ihres, etc.). Demonstrative Pronouns (der, die, denen) Fall Case Nom Akk Dat Gen Mnnlich masc. der that one den that one dem (to) that dessen of that Weiblich fem. die that one die that one der (to) that deren of that Schlich neut. das that one das that one dem (to) that dessen of that Mehrzahl plural die these die those denen (to) them deren of them

Note: When the definite articles are used as demonstrative pronouns, only the dative plural and genitive forms are different from the normal definite articles. Other Pronouns Fall Case Nom Akk Dat Gen* (Poss.) Fall Case Nom Akk Dat Gen* (Poss.) 1. Person sing. ich I mich me mir (to) me mein my Wer? who? wer wen whom wem (to) whom wessen whose 1. Person plur. wir we uns us uns (to) us unser our 2. Person sing. du you dich you dir (to) you dein your 2. Person formal (sing. & plur.) Sie Sie you Ihnen (to) you Ihr your 2. Person plur. ihr you euch you euch (to) you euer your

Interrogative "who" Formal "you"

Note: Sie is the same in the singular and plural. It is always capitalized in all of its forms. Wer(who) has no plural form in German or English. Was? The interrogative was (what) is the same in the nominative and accusative cases. It has no dative or

genitive forms and is related to das and es. Like wer, was has no plural form in German or English. For more details about each case and to read articles related to the cases, see the links below.

Padei
Nominativ je uvijek vrilac radnje, ili nosilac stanja. npr.. Die Sonne scheint. Genitiv uvijek pokazuje ije je neto. Npr. Das ist das Buch meines Vaters. (meines Vaters) Dativ ti pokazuje mjesto, kome neto daje... odgovara na pitanja wo, woher... ali dativ ima odreene prepozicije kao auf, unter, bei koje zahtijevaju dativ... iste te prepozicije mogu da se koriste sa akuzativom ukoliko se krede od take A do take B. Dativ- Ich bin in DER Stadt. Jer miruje. Ovom reenicom odgovara na pitanje (wo). Akkusativ- Ich gehe in DIE Stadt... Jer se krede, nisi u stanju mirovanja... Isto tako: Akuzativ: Ich lege das Buch auf den Tisch. (Jer pri tom se krede, pomjera knjigu od take a do take b). Dativ: Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch. (Knjiga je na stolu, ona je na tom mjestu u jednoj taki )

Pitanja u osnovnom obliku za glagole su ista kao i u srpskom jeziku. N- Wer, was - ko, ta Das Kind luft. Dete tri. G- Wessen - iji (a,e) Das Ende des Krieges ist nah. Kraj rata je blizu. D- Wem - kome, emu Das gehrt dem Kind. To pripada detetu. A- Wen - koga, ta Ich sehe ein hbsches Mdchen. Vidim lepu devojku. Ono to je opasno u nemakom, zbog ega treba izbegavati "prenoenje" oblika iz srpskog, je da se deo glagola ne koristi (vezuje) sa istim padeom kao u srpskom: Der Hund folgte der Blutspur (D) im Schnee. Pas je pratio (sledio) krvavi trag (A) u snegu. folgen+D - pratiti(slediti)+A Na sredu su takvi glagoli u manjini, ali se u svakom sluaju izuzeci moraju nauiti. Prepozicije moraju da se posmatraju kao poseban oblik, odvojeno od osnovne forme padea, i svaka prepozicija se koristi sa odreenim padeom/padeima zavisno od vrste i situacije u kojoj se koristi. Listu najedih imate ovde. Takoe, pogreno je banalizovati i vezivati kretanje, odnosno, mirovanje samo za akuzativ, odnosno, dativ jer to zavisi prvenstveno od prepozicije (vai samo za prepozicije koje su i u ak i u dat). Er ist aus der Stadt (D) geflohen.- On je pobegao iz grada. I ovo, naalost, moe samo da se naui. Verovatnoda da pogreite, ukoliko prenosite bukvalno iz srpskog, je ovde daleko veda zbog vedeg procenta "nepoklapanja".

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 Articles Personal Pronouns Ein, Eine, Ein (they all mean a, an) Ich, du, er, sie, wir, ihr, sie. (I, you, he, she...)

Definite Articles Der, die, das, die (they all meansthe)

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

Definite Articles Den, die, das, die (they all meansthe)

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

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

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

Definite Articles Des, der, des, der(they all means ofthe)

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 myteacher = 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!