The Four German Cases (Summary)

English also has cases, but they 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 der changes to den in German (and er changes to ihn). This allows German to have more flexibility in word order, as in the examples below, in which the nominative (subject) case is red:

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?

Since English does not have the same case markers (der/den), it must depend on word order. If you say "Man bites dog" in English, rather than "Dog bites man," you change the meaning. In German the word order can be changed for emphasis (as above)—without altering the basic meaning.

The following charts show the four cases with the definite article (der, die, das), the indefinite article and the third-person pronouns (er, sie, es). Changes from the nominative (subject) case are indicated in red.

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	ein	eine	ein	keine*
Akk	einen	eine	ein	keine*
Dat	einem	einer	einem	keinen*
Gen	eines	einer	eines	keiner*
*Note: keine is the negative of eine, which has no plural form. But keine (no/none) can be used in the plural: "Er hat keine Bücher." (He has no books.) - "In Venedig gibt es keine Autos." (In Venice there are no cars.)