The four German cases explained simply
A case shows what job a noun is doing in a sentence: whether it is the one acting, the thing acted on, or the person receiving something. English shows this mainly through word order. German shows it through the form of the article, which is why German word order can be so flexible. Der Hund beißt den Mann and Den Mann beißt der Hund both mean that the dog bites the man.
German has four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. Beginners need the first three early on. The genitive mostly appears in writing, and you can recognise it long before you need to use it.
English still has cases, just fewer of them
If cases sound foreign, look at English pronouns. You say he sees her but she sees him. He and she are the subject forms; him and her are the object forms. Who and whom work the same way, and the 's in the teacher's car is a leftover genitive.
German does with articles what English does with pronouns. The difference is that German does it with every noun, and the article changes rather than the noun itself.
Nominative: the subject
The nominative is the form you find in the dictionary. It is used for the subject of the sentence, the person or thing doing the action. It is also used after sein, werden and bleiben, because both sides of those verbs refer to the same thing.
Der Lehrer kommt um acht.The teacher comes at eight.
Eine Freundin wartet draußen.A friend is waiting outside.
Das ist mein Bruder.That is my brother.
Accusative: the direct object
The accusative marks the direct object, the thing that the action is done to. A quick test: ask wen? or was? (whom? what?) about the verb. Ich sehe den Mann. Whom do I see? The man, so den Mann.
Luckily for learners, only masculine nouns change. Der becomes den and ein becomes einen. Feminine, neuter and plural look exactly like the nominative.
Ich kaufe einen Tisch.I'm buying a table.
Wir besuchen den Onkel.We're visiting our uncle.
Sie liest die Zeitung.She's reading the newspaper.
The accusative also follows some prepositions, which every learner ends up memorising: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um. Das Geschenk ist für den Vater. And it is used in time phrases without a preposition: jeden Tag, nächsten Montag, den ganzen Abend.
Dative: the receiver
The dative often marks the person who receives something or benefits from it, the indirect object. Ask wem? (to whom?). Ich gebe dem Kind ein Buch. To whom do I give the book? To the child, so dem Kind. The book itself is the direct object and stays in the accusative.
In the dative all genders change: der and das become dem, die becomes der, and the plural becomes den, with an extra -n on the noun where possible: mit den Kindern.
Two more things trigger the dative. Several common verbs take a dative object even though English uses a normal object: helfen, danken, gefallen, gehören, antworten. Ich helfe dem Mann is correct; den Mann is not. And a group of prepositions always takes the dative: aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu.
Ich helfe meiner Schwester.I'm helping my sister.
Das Fahrrad gehört dem Nachbarn.The bike belongs to the neighbour.
Wir fahren mit dem Bus.We're going by bus.
Genitive: possession, mostly in writing
The genitive shows that something belongs to someone: das Auto meines Vaters (my father's car). Masculine and neuter nouns usually add -s or -es. Names simply add -s without an apostrophe: Annas Buch.
In everyday speech, von plus the dative often replaces it: das Auto von meinem Vater. You will still meet the genitive in newspapers, signs and official letters, and after prepositions such as wegen, trotz, während and statt in careful writing. In casual speech these prepositions are often used with the dative, which many people consider fine in conversation and incorrect in an essay.
The article table
If you learn one table by heart, make it this one. Every other ending in German follows a similar pattern.
| Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | der / ein | die / eine | das / ein | die / no article |
| Accusative | den / einen | die / eine | das / ein | die / no article |
| Dative | dem / einem | der / einer | dem / einem | den / no article (+ n) |
| Genitive | des / eines (+ s) | der / einer | des / eines (+ s) | der / no article |
Possessives such as mein, dein, unser and the negative kein take the same endings as ein, and they also have plural forms: meine Kinder, keine Zeit, mit meinen Freunden.
How to work out the case in a sentence
When you are building a sentence and you are not sure which case you need, go through these questions in order.
- Is the noun after a preposition? Then the preposition decides. Mit always takes the dative, für always takes the accusative.
- Is it the subject, the one doing the action? Then it is nominative.
- Is the verb one of the dative verbs like helfen or gefallen? Then dative.
- Is it the person receiving something? Usually dative.
- Is it the thing directly affected by the action? Accusative.
The only prepositions that cannot decide on their own are the nine two-way prepositions such as in, auf, an and unter. They take the accusative when there is movement towards a place (wohin?) and the dative for a location (wo?). Ich lege das Buch auf den Tisch. (I put the book on the table.) Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch. (The book is lying on the table.) The page on two-way prepositions has the full list.
Common mistake
Ich helfe den Mann. is wrong; correct: Ich helfe dem Mann.
helfen takes a dative object, even though the English help takes a normal object. The same applies to danken, gratulieren and folgen.
In what order should you learn the cases?
At A1 the nominative and accusative come first, together with the most common dative prepositions such as mit and bei. The dative of people (Ich gebe dir das Buch) and the two-way prepositions belong to late A1 and A2. The genitive can wait until B1, apart from recognising it and using names with -s.
Do not try to learn the adjective endings at the same time. They follow the case system, so they are much easier once the article table feels natural.
Check yourself
Each case has its own page with more examples: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. The declension page shows all the forms together, and the accusative and dative tests let you practise. For verbs that take two objects, see the list of verbs with dative and accusative.
Written by: Fatih Ün, German teacher · Last updated: