Dative Case

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The German dative case is generally used for the indirect object. The indirect object is often the receiver of the direct object. Take this sentence for example:

Der Bäcker gibt den Armen kein Brot – The Baker gives no bread to the poor

In that sentence there are two objects, a direct one, ‘bread‘, and the indirect one ‘the poor‘.
To identify which of both is the indirect object, you could simply ask yourself ‘To whom or for whom is the action being done?’. In most cases the indirect object is a person, but sometimes it could be an inanimate object as well.

Endings in the Dative case

Unlike the accusative case discussed in the last lesson, the dative case not only affects the ending of the words linked to the noun, but it affects the noun itself as well.

Article	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Definite	dem Mann	der Frau	dem Kind	den Tieren
Indefinite	einem Mann	einer Frau	einem Kind	– Tieren
Negative	keinem Mann	keiner Frau	keinem Kind	keinen Tieren
Possessive	meinem Mann	meiner Frau	meinem Kind	meinen Tieren

Note that in the German dative case, an ‘-en‘ or a ‘-n‘ is added to the plural of the noun unless if that plural already ends with a ‘-s‘ or a ‘-n‘.

Personal Pronouns

All of the personal pronouns change from the nominative case to the dative case as shown in the next table:

Singular Pronoun	Definition	Plural Pronoun	Definition
mir	me	uns	us
dir	you – informal	euch	you – informal
ihm/ihr/ihm	him/her/it	ihnen	they
Ihnen	you – formal	Ihnen	you – formal

Dative case after certain verbs

The Dative case comes after certain verbs no matter what role the noun/pronoun plays, and even if there is no direct object in the sentence.

Verb	Definition	Verb	Definition
antworten	to answer	gratulieren	to congratulate
danken	to thank	helfen	to help
drohen	to threaten	nutzen	to be useful
fehlen	to be missing	passen	to suit
folgen	to follow	schmecken	to taste
gehören	to belong to	verzeihen	to forgive
glauben	to believe	zuhören	to listen to

Dative case after certain prepositions

Certain prepositions always take the dative case no matter their position in the sentence, and even if there will be more than one dative noun within the sentence.

Preposition	Definition
aus	from, out of
außer	apart from
bei	at, near
gegenüber	opposite
mit	with
nach	after, to
seit	since, for
von	from
zu	to

Interrogatives in the Dative Case

In the dative, the interrogative pronoun ‘wer‘ becomes ‘wem‘, and the interrogative ‘welcher‘ is declined according to the noun it’s attached to.

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Dative	welchem	welcher	welchem	welchen

Impersonal Expressions

Numerous German expressions often use ‘es‘ as their subject. They are called ‘impersonal expressions‘ becuase they don’t identify a specific person or object as their subject. Often these expressions require a dative object.
For example:

Es fällt mir ein – It occurs to me
Es kommt dir vor – It appears to you
Es scheint ihm – It seems to him
Es gefällt dem Mann – It appeals to the man

Examples

Here are a few example sentences in which the dative nouns/pronouns are pointed out:

Ich gebe meiner Schwester einen Hut – I’m giving a hat to my sister
Wir folgen den Kindern – We are following the kids
Sie kommt aus dem Museum – She is coming from the museum
Wir fahren mit dem Zug – We’re riding the train

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