The Dative case - Der Dativ

The dative is a very important element of communicating in German. The dative is the indirect object of the sentence but can also occur after certain verbs and prepositions. The dative affects all three genders and causes changes in the endings of articles and adjectives and even of the noun itself (in plural and some masculine nouns).

This is how the definite articles (der/die/das = the) change in the dative case:

	masculine	feminine	neuter	Plural
Nominative	der Mann	die Frau	das Kind	die Kinder
Dative	dem Mann	der Frau	dem Kind	den Kindern*

* In plural all nouns add the letter -n unless the word already ends in -n or -s. There are also some masculine nouns that add an -n; they are the so called weak nouns. More information about those in a later post.

And here the indefinite articles (ein/eine = a/an):

	masculine	feminine	neuter	Plural
Nominative	ein Mann	eine Frau	ein Kind	keine Kinder
Dative	einem Mann	einer Frau	einem Kind	keinen Kindern*

 

If there is an adjective before the noun the endings are as follows:

	masculine	feminine	neuter	Plural
Nominative	der alte Mann	die junge Frau	das netteKind	die netten Kinder
Dative	dem alten Mann	der jungen Frau	dem netten Kind	den netten Kindern*

	masculine	feminine	neuter	Plural
Nominative	ein alter Mann	eine junge Frau	ein nettes Kind	keine netten Kinder
Dative	einem alten Mann	einer jungenFrau	einem netten Kind	keinen netten Kindern*

 All adjectives get the ending -en, no matter what gender they are.