The Dative Case

Dative - Der Wemfall

The dative case in German is a vital element of communicating in German. In English the dative case is known as the indirect object. Unlike the accusative, which only changes in the masculine gender, the dative changes in all genders and in the plural. The pronouns also change correspondingly.

In addition to its function as the indirect object, the dative is also used after certain dative verbs and with dative prepositions. In the examples below, the dative word or expression is in red:

Der Polizist gibt dem Fahrer einen Strafzettel.
The policeman is giving the driver a ticket.
Ich danke Ihnen.
I thank you.
Wir machen das mit einem Computer.
We do that with a computer.

The indirect object (dative) is usually the receiver of the direct object (accusative). In the first example above, the driver got the ticket. Often the dative can be translated with "to"-"the policeman gives the ticket to the driver." The following color-coded chart shows how the dative forms are used in various situations.

Definite Article (the)
Fall Case	Masc.	Fem.
Nom	der	die
Dat	dem	der der Frau der Verkäuferin
	dem Bleistift dem Mann dem Wagen
	dem Präsidenten* dem Jungen*
*Note: Some masc. nouns add an -en or -n ending in the dative and in all other cases besides the nominative.
Fall Case	Neu.	Plur.
Nom	das	die
Dat	dem dem Mädchen dem Haus	den den Leuten den Autos
Note: In the dative, plural nouns add an -en or -n if the plural does not already end in -n, except for plurals ending in -s.

Indefinite Article (ein, eine, keine)
Fall Case	Masc.	Fem.
Nom	ein	eine
Dat	einem	einer einer Frau einer Verkäuferin
	einem Bleistift einem Mann einem Wagen
	einem Präsidenten* einem Jungen*
*Note: Some masc. nouns add an -en or -n ending in the dative and in all other cases besides the nominative.
Fall Case	Neu.	Plur.
Nom	ein	keine
Dat	einem einem Mädchen einem Haus	keinen keinen Leuten keinen Autos
Note: In the dative, plural nouns add an -en or -n if the plural does not already end in -n, except for plurals ending in -s.

The Germanic word for the dative case, der Wemfall, reflects the der-to-dem change. The question word in the dative is, naturally enough, wem ([to] whom): Wem hast du das Buch gegeben?, Whom did you give book? (Who'd you give the book to?)

Some German verbs do not take an accusative object.