German cases¶

Q: What's the difference between Akkusativ and Dativ?

Akkusativ is the case of the direct object. It answers the question wen? or was? (whom? what?). Dativ is the case of the indirect object. It answers the question wem? (to whom?). In "Ich gebe dir das Buch" (I give you the book), the receiver dir takes Dativ, and the book das Buch takes Akkusativ. But many verbs and prepositions take a fixed case that doesn't follow this rule. You have to learn that case together with the word.

Q: How do I know which case a given verb or preposition needs?

No rule always works. Many verbs and prepositions take a fixed case only because of convention. This is called government (Rektion). For example, helfen (to help) takes Dativ, although in English you "help him". The only reliable way is to learn the case together with the word, in an example.

Q: Does Genitiv come up much in everyday spoken German?

Less than the other three cases. In everyday speech, people often use von + Dativ instead of Genitiv: they say "das Auto von meinem Vater" instead of "das Auto meines Vaters". But in written and formal German, Genitiv is still the norm. It also comes after some prepositions (während, trotz, wegen) and in set phrases. So don't skip it completely.

German has four cases: Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ and Genitiv. A case is a form of a noun and of the article before it. It shows the role of the word in the sentence: who acts, who or what the action affects, who something is for. English shows most of this with word order instead of endings, so the idea can feel new. English pronouns do something similar, though (he, him, his). The hard part is that German rules for the case don't always match what English speakers expect. So you often have to learn the case together with the word.

How the article declines across cases¶

The article changes with the case and with the gender of the noun: Maskulinum (masculine), Femininum (feminine), Neutrum (neuter) or Plural.

Case	Maskulinum	Femininum	Neutrum	Plural
Nominativ	der	die	das	die
Akkusativ	den	die	das	die
Dativ	dem	der	dem	den
Genitiv	des	der	des	der

How the indefinite article declines across cases¶

ein has no Plural form. It means "a" or "one", and "a" can't be plural. So the table has only three genders.

Case	Maskulinum	Femininum	Neutrum
Nominativ	ein	eine	ein
Akkusativ	einen	eine	ein
Dativ	einem	einer	einem
Genitiv	eines	einer	eines

What each case does¶

Nominativ (nominative) answers the question wer? or was? (who? what?). It is the case of the subject: the person or thing that acts. Der Hund schläft. (The dog is sleeping.)
Akkusativ (accusative) answers the question wen? or was? (whom? what?). It is the case of the direct object: the person or thing that the action affects. Ich sehe den Hund. (I see the dog.)
Dativ (dative) answers the question wem? (to whom?). It is the case of the indirect object: the person or thing that receives something. Ich gebe dem Hund das Futter. (I give the dog the food.)
Genitiv (genitive) answers the question wessen? (whose?). It shows who owns something. das Futter des Hundes (the dog's food)

If a sentence has two objects, the receiver usually takes Dativ, and the thing that is given takes Akkusativ: Ich gebe dir (Dativ) das Buch (Akkusativ).

Textbooks and courses use these questions as names for the cases. But you can ask the German question correctly only if you already know the case. So choose the case by the role of the word, not by the question. For things, the question can't help anyway, because was? is the same in Nominativ and Akkusativ.

Why the case isn't always predictable from meaning¶

The rule above doesn't always work. Many verbs and prepositions take a fixed case only because of convention. This is called government (Rektion). You can't get this case from the meaning of the sentence.

For example, helfen (to help) takes Dativ: Ich helfe dir. In English you "help him", so you expect Akkusativ.

Prepositions work the same way. für, mit, durch and others always take the same case. For some prepositions (an, auf, in and others), the case depends on the meaning. When the phrase answers wohin? (where to?), they take Akkusativ. When it answers wo? (at which place?), they take Dativ.

You have to learn these cases one by one. For more, see "Prepositions and cases" and "Verbs with Dativ (no preposition)".

Exercises¶

Choose the article in the right case after a verb or a preposition.

You can find more exercises on this topic in the Telegram bot @ImmerWiederholenBot. The bot saves your progress and reminds you when it's time to review.