Hi everyone!!!
As I’ve been promissed, today I will start talking about the four German grammatical cases… finally!!! hahaha
The German grammatical cases are:
- ,,Nominativ“: It is simply the subject of the sentence.
- ,,Akkusativ“: It is the direct object of the sentence. This is the case governed by most verbs and prepositions.
- ,,Dativ“: The words are declined when they have indirect object function. A smaller number of verbs and prepositions govern the dative.
- ,,Genitiv“: It is essentially the case of possession.
English cases 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 er changes to ihn in German (and der changes to den). This allows German to have more flexibility in word order, for example:
,,Der Hund beißt den Mann.” (“The dog bites the man.”)
,,Den Mann beißt der Hund.” (“The dog bites the man.”)
,,Beißt der Hund den Mann?” (“Is the dog biting the man?”)
,,Beißt den Mann der Hund?” (“Is the dog biting the man?”)
In German the word order can be changed for emphasis, without altering the basic meaning. But if you say “Man bites dog” in English, rather than “Dog bites man”, you change the meaning. Because English does not have the same case markers (der/den), it must depend on word order.
| Definite Articles (the) | ||||
| Fall Case |
Männlich masculine |
Weiblich feminine |
Sächlich neuter |
Mehrzahl plural |
| Nom | der | die | das | die |
| Akk | den | die | das | die |
| Dat | dem | der | dem | den |
| Gen | des | der | des | der |
| Indefinite Articles (a/an) | ||||
| Fall Case |
Männlich masculine |
Weiblich feminine |
Sächlich neuter |
Mehrzahl plural |
| Nom | (k)ein | (k)eine | (k)ein | keine* |
| Akk | (k)einen | (k)eine | (k)ein | keine* |
| Dat | (k)einem | (k)einer | (k)einem | keine* |
| Gen | (k)eines | (k)einer | (k)eines | keine* |
NOTE!
- ,,Keine” is the negative of ,,eine“, which has no plural form. But ,,keine” (no/none) can be used in the plural.
| Demonstrative Pronouns (der, die, denen) | ||||
| Fall Case |
Männlich masculine |
Weiblich feminine |
Sächlich neuter |
Mehrzahl plural |
| Nom | der that one |
die that one |
das that one |
die these |
| Akk | den that one |
die that one |
das that one |
die those |
| Dat | dem (to) that |
der (to) that |
dem (to) that |
denen (to) them |
| Gen | dessen of that |
deren of that |
dessen of that |
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.
| Personal Pronouns | ||||
| Nom | Akk | Dat | Gen | |
| 1. Person sing. |
ich I |
mich me |
mir (to) me |
mein my |
| 2. Person sing. |
du you |
dich you |
dir (to) you |
dein your |
| 3. Person sing. |
er he |
ihn him |
ihm (to) him |
sein his |
| 3. Person sing. |
sie she |
sie her |
ihr (to) her |
ihr her |
| 3. Person sing. |
es it |
es it |
ihm (to) it |
sein its |
| 1. Person plur. |
wir we |
uns us |
uns (to) us |
unser our |
| 2. Person plur. |
ihr you |
euch you |
euch (to) you |
euer your |
| 2. Person formal |
Sie | Sie you |
Ihnen (to) you |
Ihr your |
| 3. Person plur. |
sie they |
sie them |
ihnen (to) them |
ihre their |
NOTES!
- The possessive 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.).
- ,,Sie” is the same in the singular and plural. It is always capitalized in all of its forms.
| Interrogative “who” | ||||
| Fall Case |
Wer? who? |
|||
| Nom | wer | |||
| Akk | wen whom |
|||
| Dat | wem (to) whom |
|||
| Gen | wessen whose |
|||
NOTES!
- ,,Wer” (who) has no plural form in German or English.
- 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.
Examples:
,,Er (der Hund) beißt 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.”)
For more about each case, see the next posts!!!! 😉
Deutsch jeden Tag 