Four cases, four jobs

Every noun phrase sits in one of four cases, decided by its role in the clause:

• Nominativ — the subject (who does it) and the complement after sein / werden / bleiben: Der Hund schläft.
• Akkusativ — the direct object (who receives the action): Ich sehe den Hund.
• Dativ — the indirect object (to/for whom): Ich gebe dem Hund einen Knochen.
• Genitiv — possession (whose): das Halsband des Hundes.

Ask two questions: Wer/Was? finds the Nominativ subject; Wen/Was? finds the Akkusativ; Wem? finds the Dativ; Wessen? finds the Genitiv.

Find the direct object

der / die / das across the cases

Learn this grid cold — it is the backbone of the whole case system:

Two things to notice: only the masculine changes in the accusative (der → den); in the dative plural the noun itself adds -n (den Kindern, mit den Freunden).

Pick the right form

Your turn — the dative article

ein, kein & the possessives

ein / kein / mein / dein / sein / ihr / unser / euer / Ihr all take the same endings. Note the three "empty" boxes where ein has no ending:

The tell: ein has no ending in masc.-nom., neut.-nom. and neut.-akk. — everywhere else it copies the der-word ending (-en, -em, -er, -es).

After sein: which case?

Your turn — accusative of ein

Subject, object & time phrases

The Nominativ is the doer and the "equals" complement; the Akkusativ is the direct object — and also definite time expressions:

• Der Zug ist pünktlich. — nominative subject.
• Sie kauft einen neuen Wagen. — accusative object.
• Wir bleiben einen Monat in Berlin. / jeden Tag, nächste Woche — accusative of time.

Exam gold: phrases like letzten Sommer, jeden Morgen, einen Monat lang are accusative even though there is no obvious "object" — a reliable way to show control of the case system.

The dative & dative verbs

The Dativ is the indirect object (the receiver), but a group of common verbs governs it directly with no accusative at all:

• helfen, danken, folgen, gefallen, gehören, antworten, begegnen, gratulieren, passen — all + Dativ.
• Ich danke dem Lehrer. — I thank the teacher (dative, no accusative).
• Das Buch gehört meiner Schwester. — the book belongs to my sister.
• Der Film gefällt mir. — literally "the film is pleasing to me" = I like the film.

Trap: "I like the film" is Der Film gefällt mir — the thing liked is the subject, the person is dative. Never *"ich gefalle den Film".

A dative verb

Your turn — a dative clause

Which case does the verb take?

Sort each verb by whether it governs the dative or the accusative.

The genitive — whose?

The Genitiv shows possession and follows a handful of prepositions. Masculine and neuter nouns add -s (or -es after one syllable):

• das Auto des Vaters — the father's car.
• die Meinung der Studenten — the students' opinion.
• After prepositions: während der Woche, trotz des Regens, wegen des Wetters, statt eines Buches.

Register note: in speech the genitive is often replaced by von + dative (das Auto von meinem Vater), but in essays the true genitive reads as more formal and precise — use it.

Build a genitive

Your turn — a genitive noun

The n-declension

A special group of masculine nouns (the "n-nouns") add -(e)n in every case except the nominative singular:

Members: people and animals such as der Student, der Junge, der Kollege, der Kunde, der Mensch, der Nachbar, der Löwe, der Präsident, der Journalist. Herr adds -n in the singular but -en in the plural (die Herren).

A weak masculine noun

Your turn — an n-noun

Match the case to its ein-word

Tap a case + gender on the left, then the matching ein-form on the right.

Your case toolkit

Cluster 2 puts these cases to work in the sentence: word order — V2, TeKaMoLo and the verb-final subordinate clause. Press Finish.