The German Case system - Die Fälle

The German language has four cases which affect the endings of nouns and their articles and adjectives.  The use of certain cases is determined by the role the noun plays in the sentence, e.g. subject or object, or they depend on certain verbs and prepositions.

The German cases are called Nominative, Accusative, Dative, and Genitive.

This is just a first introduction into the case system. More detailed information about each case will follow.

Nominative Case

Nominative is the case of the subject of the sentence. You can ask ‘who’ or ‘what’ to identify this case. The subject of a sentence always reigns the verb, so it should be easy to recognize it. The Nominative article is always ‘der/die/das’ or ‘ein/eine’.

Beispiel - example:

Der Schüler lernt die deutsche Sprache. The student learns the German language.
(Who learns German? the student = subject)

Accusative Case

The Accusative case is used for the direct object of the sentence. You can ask ‘what’ or ‘who’ to identify the case. The Accusative articles are ‘den’ instead of ‘der’ or ‘einen’ instead of ‘ein’ for all masculine nouns. The feminine and neuter nouns are not affected by the Accusative.

Beispiel - example:

a) Der Schüler lernt die deutsche Sprache. The student learns the German language.
(What does the student learn? the German language = object)
b) Der Mann hat einen Hund. The man has got a dog.
(What has the man got? a dog = object)
This time the object is masculine (der Hund or ein Hund), therefore the ‘ein’ changes to ‘einen’.

Dative Case

The Dative case is used to indicate the indirect object. The indirect object is often the receiver of the direct object (to whom or to what the action is being done). All articles are affected by the Dative: ‘die/eine’ changes to ‘der/einer’ and ‘der/das/ein’ change to ‘dem’ and ‘einem’.

Beispiel - example:

a) Der Mann gibt seinem Hund einen Knochen. The man gives his dog a bone.
(To whom does the man give a bone? his dog = indirect object)
The direct object in this sentence is ‘einen Knochen’.
b) Die Frau gibt ihrer Tochter ein Geschenk. The woman gives a present to her daughter.
(To whom does the woman give a present? her daughter = indirect object)

Genitive Case

The Genitive case indicates possession, similar to the English 's. However, there is no apostrophe used for the Genitive.

Beispiel - example:

Der Hund des Mannes heisst Rex. The man's dog is called Rex.
(Whose dog is called Rex? the man’s = possession)