The Genitive Case

Der Genitiv • Der Wesfall

The genitive case in German shows possession and is expressed in English by the possessive "of" or an apostrophe-s ('s). The genitive case is also used with some verb idioms and with the genitive prepositions. The genitive is used more in written German than in spoken form. In spoken, everyday German, von plus the dative often replaces the genitive: Das Auto von meinem Bruder = My brother's car.

You can tell that a noun is in the genitive case by the article, which changes to des/eines (masculine and neuter) or der/einer (feminine and plural). Since the genitive only has two forms (des or der), you only need to learn those two. However, in the masculine and neuter, there is also an additional noun ending, either -es or -s:

das Auto meines Bruders
my brother's car (the car of my brother)
die Bluse des Mädchens
the girl's blouse (the blouse of the girl)
der Titel des Filmes (Films)
the title of the film

Feminine and plural nouns do not add an ending in the genitive. The feminine genitive (der/einer) is identical to the feminine dative. The one-word genitive article usually translates as two words (of the / of a/an) in English.

Definite Articles (the)
Fall Case	Masc.	Neu.	Fem.	Plur.
Nom	der	das	die	die
Gen	des (-es/s)*		der
Indefinite Article (a/an)
Nom	ein	ein	eine	keine
Gen	eines (-es/s)*		(k)einer
*Note: Some masc. nouns add an -en or -n ending in the genitive and in all other cases besides the nominative.
Adjective endings: In the genitive case, adjectives almost always have an -en ending. Examples: des neuen Autos, der hohen Kosten

The Germanic word for the genitive case is der Wesfall. The question word in the genitive is wessen (whose): Wessen Buch hast du? (Whose book do you have?)

When showing possession with the names of people, countries or cities, German adds an s (without an apostrophe): Karls Haus, Marias Buch, die Geschichte Deutschlands (Germany's history). Unfortunately, many German-speakers have adopted the English practice of using an apostrophe (Karl's Auto) for the possessive forms, but it is still considered to be substandard German.

Some German verbs take an object in the genitive case.

Genitive Expressions
The genitive is used in some idiomatic expressions.

Ende der Woche gehen wir.
At the end of the week we're going.
Ich muss das Anfang des Monats bezahlen.
I have to pay that at the start of the month.

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.

The Accusative Case

Der Akkusativ • Der Wenfall

If you misuse the accusative case in German, it could be very similar to saying something like "him has the book" or "her saw he yesterday" in English. With the confusion this might cause, you can see this is not something to take lightly! It's not just some esoteric grammar point; it impacts whether people will understand your German or not (and whether you'll understand them).

In English the accusative case is known as the objective case (direct object). In German you can tell that a noun is in the accusative case by the masculine article, which changes from der/ein to den/einen. (Since the accusative only changes in the masculine gender, you don't need to worry about the feminine, neuter or plural.) The masculine pronoun er (he) changes to ihn (him), in much the same way as English. In the examples below, the accusative (direct object) word is in red:

Der Hund beißt den Mann. The dog bites the man.
Er beißt ihn. He (the dog) bites him (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?

The direct object (accusative) functions as the receiver of the action of a transitive verb. In the examples above, the man is acted upon by the dog, i.e., receives the action of the subject ("dog"). To give a few more transitive verb examples, when you buy (kaufen) something or have (haben) something, the "something" is a direct object. The subject (the person buying or having) is acting on some object.

Definite Article (the)
Fall Case	Masc.	Fem.	Neu.	Plur.
Nom	der	die	das	die
Akk	den	die	das	die
	den Bleistift den Mann den Wagen
	den Präsidenten* den Jungen*
*Note: Some masc. nouns add an -en or -n ending in the accusative and in all other cases besides the nominative.
Interrogative Pronoun (who? - whom?)
Nom (people)	wer? who?	wer? who?	wer? who?	wer? who?
Acc (people)	wen? whom?	wen? whom?	wen? whom?	wen? whom?

Indefinite Article (a/an)
Fall Case	Masc.	Fem.	Neu.	Plur.
Nom	ein	eine	ein	keine*
Akk	einen	eine	ein	keine*
	einen Bleistift einen Mann einen Wagen
	einen Präsidenten** einen Jungen**
*Note: keine is the negative of eine, which has no plural form. But keine (no/none) can be used in the plural: "In Venedig gibt es keine Autos." (In Venice there are no cars.)
**Note: Some masc. nouns add -en or -n in the accusative and in all other cases except the nominative.

You can test for a transitive verb by saying it without an object. If it sounds odd, and seems to need an object to sound right, then it is probably a transitive verb. Example: I have... / Ich habe...; He bought... / Er kaufte... - Both of these phrases answer the implied question "what?" What do you have? What did he buy? And whatever that is, is the direct object and in the accusative case in German.

On the other hand if you do this with an intransitive verb, such as "to sleep," "to die," or "to wait," no direct-object completion is needed. You can't "sleep," "die" or "wait" something. (Two apparent exceptions to this test, become and be, are actually not exceptions, since they are intransitive verbs that act like an equal sign, and can not take an object.) A good additional clue in German: all verbs that take the helping verb sein (to be) are intransitive.

Some verbs in English and German can be either transitive or intransitive, but the key is to remember that if you have a direct object, you'll have the accusative case in German.

The Germanic word for the accusative case, der Wenfall, reflects the der-to-den change. The question word in the accusative is, naturally enough, wen (whom): Wen hast du gestern gesehen?, Whom did you see yesterday?

The Nominative Case

Der Nominativ • Der Werfall

The nominative case—in German and in English—is the subject of a sentence. The term nominative is from Latin and means to name (think of "nominate").

All German nouns have one of three possible genders: masculine (der), feminine (die) or neuter (das). The nominative plural of any gender is always die (pron. DEE). These gender words are also called definite articles ("the").

The most common gender in German is the masculine. (Keep that in mind the next time you're guessing.). These gender forms—der, die, das—are the nominative forms. They are the article or gender that is found in a German dictionary, but they may change form (be "declined") when in one of the other three German cases.

In English, only persons and personal pronouns have gender, with rare exceptions ("she's a good ship"). In German, every noun (person, place or thing), whether it refers to a tree, a thought, a planet, a car or a man (all masculine nouns in German), has a gender. However, it is the word (das Wort), not the object or concept itself, that has gender..

In the examples below, the nominative word or expression is in red:

Der Hund beißt den Mann.
The dog bites the man.
Dieser Gedanke ist blöd.
This thought is stupid.
Meine Mutter ist Architektin.
My mother is an architect.

The nominative case can also be found in the predicate, as in the last example. The verb "is" acts like an equal sign (my mother = architect). But the nominative is most often the subject of a sentence.

Definite Articles (the)
Fall Case	Masc.	Fem.	Neu.	Plur.
Nom	der the	die the	das the	die the
Third Person Pronouns (he, she, it, they)
Nom	er he	sie she	es it	sie they
Notice that each pronoun ends in the same letter as its corresponding definite article? (der/er, r/e/s/e)
Interrogative Pronouns (questions)
Nom (people)	wer? who?	wer?	wer?	wer?
Nom (things)	was? what?	was?	was?	was?

Indefinite Articles (a, an)
Fall Case	Masc.	Fem.	Neu.	Plur.
Nom	ein a/an	eine a/an	ein a/an	keine* no/none
*Note: keine is the negative of eine, which has no plural form. But keine (no/none) can be used in the plural: "Keine Autos dürfen hier fahren." (No cars can be used here.)

The Germanic word for the nominative case, der Werfall, reflects the der gender and the question word wer (who): Wer hat mich gestern gesehen? (Who saw me yesterday?)

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.)