The 4 German Cases: A Helpful Introduction

What Is A Case?

No, it’s got nothing to do with criminal offenses, and you can’t put your phone in it. In our situation, we use the word “case” to describe a case as a grammatical term that specifies subjects and objects in sentences, both in German and English grammar.

Just like there are four German cases, there are three cases in the English language – they just usually go rather undetected. Ever wondered why we use “whom”? That is referring to an objective case, equal to either accusative or dative in German. How about “whose”? That’s more obvious; it’s possessive, similar to the German genitive one. 

There are three cases in German: dative, accusative, nominative, which is usually the subject of a sentence, and genitive. Most people know the latter well, and that’s why today, we’re focusing on the more confusing cases: nominative, accusative, and dative. Let’s take a quick look at how they work first.

How German Cases Work – the Basics

Let’s take a look at the words “he,” “him,” and “his.” By asking “who?” we can learn which one of those is nominative. For example, let’s take the sentence “He gave him back his hat.” “He” is the nominative case, and we can find that out by asking: “Who gave him back his hat?” Answer: “he.” 

The word “him” could be accusative or dative in German, so that’s a bit more tricky. We can find out which one is accusative or dative by asking, “Whom did he give back his hat?” answer: “him.” 

And to find out which one is the genitive case, the one that deals with belonging, you can simply ask: “Whose hat did he give him back?” Answer: “his” (because it belongs to him).

All nouns stand in relation to each other in a sentence, and to learn how they are related, we use the cases. Then, in order to know which case is which, we ask “who?”, “whom?”, and “whose?” in English. This is a good start for learning the German cases, and it’s one of the most basic things that will make your German learning process much less troubling.

So, let’s sum up: “he” is nominative, and you know that by asking “who?”

“Him” is accusative/dative, and you know that by asking “whom?”

“His” is genitive, and you know that by asking “whose?”

If you’ve never been aware of that in English, that’s surely quite confusing now. But don’t worry, you will master that in no time. Most Germans forget about many rules after learning them at school, but they still use the cases correctly (most of the time), and you will, too. Even if you don’t entirely get something, it shouldn’t stop you from speaking German fluently.

German Cases Influencing Other Grammar

Now, we can’t stop here quite yet. You might have heard about the three articles in the German language that are the translation for “the,” which are “der, die, das.”

In German, nouns are changed based on their function in the sentence, which happens to all nouns (for example, pronouns like “he,” “him, “and “his,” but also common nouns like “chair” and “glass,” etc.).

These also require changing the article they are used with, changing a noun’s suffix (ending), and adding endings to adjectives based on the case of the word they describe. And German cases play a significant role in this process. That’s probably the most challenging thing about learning German, but the whole language is based on it. 

So even if you need to get used to the topic and figure out everything you don’t yet understand, you still should learn the basic concept.

That might be a lot to take in for now but read on. Let us explain it a little bit deeper so that you can understand the basics better. And let’s start with a short definition of the four German cases:

The case of a noun in a sentence tells you what role it plays and how it relates to other nouns.

There are Four German Cases:

• Nominative
• Accusative
• Dative
• Genitive

Those words are the English names for the cases, but the German ones are nearly the same “Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ, Genitiv.” Let’s start with some examples.

Examples:

• (The chicken is white) „Das Huhn ist weiß.“   (das Huhn = Nominative case)
• (The man’s chicken is white) „Das Huhn des Mannes ist weiß.“  (des Mannes = Genitive case)
• (The man is gifting the chicken to the woman.) „Der Mann schenkt der Frau das Huhn.“ (der Frau = Dative case)  (das Huhn = Accusative case)

Which Words Have a Case?

Each and every noun in a sentence has a case – always.

The words that belong to the noun, such as articles, pronouns, and adjectives, take the same case. For example:

• “Die kleine Katze beobachtet den großen Mann, dem das schöne Haus gehört” (The tiny cat watches the tall man, who the beautiful house belongs to”).

How Do You Determine Which Case To Use?

Usually, you can determine the case by:

• the noun’s function in the sentence – for example, if it’s an indirect or direct object;
• the verb/verbs used in the sentence;
• the prepositions around the noun.​

The Nominative Case