Der Dativ

   • for the subject of a sentence: who or what is doing this?

   • for predicate nouns: when the main verb is sein or werden, use the nominative for both subject and predicate nouns.

Accusative

   • for the direct object of a sentence: who or what is being <verbed>?

   Note that the very common expression “es gibt” (there is/are) requires that the noun be in the accusative case because it is grammatically a direct object.

   • after the accusative prepositions and postpositions: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um (memory aid: dogfu), as well as the postpositions bis and entlang . If a noun follows these prepositions, it will ALWAYS be in the accusative!

   • time expressions in a sentence are usually in accusative: jeden Tag, letzten Sommer, den ganzen Tag, diesen Abend, etc. We haven’t officially learned this yet, but it’s good to know.

Let’s practice a bit. These sentences mix nominative and accusative forms, so watch out.

Now it’s time to learn the DATIVE case — the third of German’s four cases. (You’ll learn the fourth, the genitive case, next semester.) First, let’s learn what the forms of the dative look like for the articles:

You’ll notice that whereas in the accusative case, only the masculine articles changed their form (to den/einen), in the dative case, ALL of the genders change. It may help you to remember these changes with the mnemonic device “rese nese mr mn” — in other words, der-die-das-die, den-die-das-die, dem-der-dem-den.

When to use the dative case?

A primary use of the dative case is for the indirect object of a sentence. An indirect object is the beneficiary of whatever happens in a sentence. It’s usually a person, although it doesn’t have to be. If you ask yourself: “TO whom or FOR whom is this being done?”, the answer will be the indirect object, and in German it will need the dative case.

Not every sentence will have an indirect object — all semester, we’ve mostly been using sentences that do not have indirect objects. Like in English, only some verbs allow an indirect object: to give (to), to bring (to), to tell (to), to buy (for), to send (to) are some good examples of verbs that will almost always have an indirect object. In English, we don’t distinguish the direct and indirect object in the forms of words; instead, we often use “to” or “for” to mark these. If you can potentially insert “to” or “for” in front of a noun in an English sentence, it’s probably an indirect object.

Let’s practice identifying objects in some sentences first. Tell whether the underlined nouns/pronouns in these sentences are SUBJECTS (S), DIRECT OBJECTS (DO), or INDIRECT OBJECTS (IO).

Now do the same thing, but with these German sentences.

You’ll notice in the last sentence that the normal plural form “die Freunde” has changed to “meinen Freunden”. This is the only irregularity in the dative case: dative PLURAL forms add an -n to the noun if at all possible. Consider:

Now, remember that your dative articles are dem – der – dem – den. Let’s try filling in some blanks.

In addition to the articles (dem, einem, etc), we need to learn the pronouns in the dative case (to me, to you, etc). Here’s a summary table:

This may look horribly confusing, but there are some patterns here that can help you. Consider the following:

   • the masculine article changes from der – den – dem. The masculine pronoun (he/him) changes from er – ihn – ihm.
   • the feminine article changes from die – die – der. The feminine pronoun (she/her) changes from sie – sie – ihr.
   • the neuter article changes from das – das – dem. The neuter pronoun (it) changes from es – es – ihm.
   • the plural article changes from die – die – den. The plural pronoun (they/them) changes from sie – sie – ihnen.

Now let’s try some setences with pronouns.

That covers the dative case when used with indirect objects. There are two other uses for the dative case that you’ll need to learn. One of them — the dative verbs — we’ll be doing tomorrow in class. But the second use, which really is very common and useful, is the dative case with PREPOSITIONS. Remember that the prepositions you learned in chapter four (durch-für-gegen-ohne-um) always take the accusative case. These new prepositions will always take the dative case.

(One memory aid for these prepositions is to sing the Blue Danube Waltz melody with the prepositions: aus-außer-bei-mit-nach-seit-von-zu.) There are many possible translations of these prepositions, depending on exactly what the context of the sentence is. Please refer to your textbook, pp. 239-240, for more detailed explanation of the meanings of each preposition.

Let’s try a few sentences using the dative prepositions. As you’ll see, there are many uses for these prepositions, so you’ll get used to them very quickly.

A few final notes on using the dative with prepositions. First off, there are several contractions that occur with dative prepositions. They are:

For whatever reason, you cannot contract ‘bei der’ or anything else, just the ones listed above.

Also, as we talked about yesterday, the preposition “in” often uses the dative case. Next semester you will be learning more about this preposition and how to use it correctly. For now, the most you need to know is that when ‘in’ is used with a stationary verb (e.g. He’s in the house), it takes the dative case. Like the contractions above, im = in dem.

So in all the sentences we’ll be practicing about house and furniture, ‘in’ will take the dative case.

The question words wer – wen – wem

To ask “who” in German, you need to decided whether the “who” is the subject, the direct object, or the indirect object. The forms of ‘wer’ are just like the masculine article: wer – wen – wem.

Summary: When to use which case

So, when you’re trying to decide which case to use, consider the following things:

If you need reference to these, here’s a table of the different endings and pronouns in the three cases: