The German cases, explained

Because the case marks the job, German can move words around without changing who does what. "Den Mann beißt der Hund" still means the dog bites the man: "den" says the man is the object, wherever he stands. In English, only the word order tells you.

The question column is the classic way to find a case: ask the question with the verb and see which word answers it. Wer schläft? Der Hund: nominative. Wen siehst du? Den Hund: accusative. Wem gibst du den Knochen? Dem Hund: dative. Wessen Ball ist das? Der Ball des Hundes: genitive. The trick works for nouns that stand on their own. After a preposition the preposition decides, and some verbs simply require a case (see the sections on prepositions and verbs below).

The nominative is the dictionary form, and it marks the subject: the person or thing doing what the verb says. The accusative marks the direct object: the person or thing the action goes to directly. Most German verbs take one subject and one accusative object, exactly like their English equivalents: sehen, kaufen, brauchen, haben, lieben, bringen.

Swap the two nouns round and the articles carry the meaning with them. "Den Kaffee bringt der Kellner" still has the waiter bringing the coffee: den Kaffee has moved to the front for emphasis, but it is still the object. Only masculine nouns show this difference on the article, though. A feminine, neuter or plural noun has the same article in the nominative and the accusative (die Frau, das Kind, die Kinder), and then word order and common sense decide.

• Mein Bruder sucht einen Job.My brother is looking for a job. (einen: masculine accusative)
• Ich kenne die Stadt gut.I know the city well. (die: feminine, same in both cases)
• Hast du das Ticket?Have you got the ticket? (das: neuter, same in both cases)
• Wir besuchen jeden Sommer unsere Großeltern.We visit our grandparents every summer. (jeden Sommer: a time phrase in the accusative)

Two more uses are worth knowing. The accusative also appears in time phrases without a preposition (jeden Tag, every day; nächsten Monat, next month) and after es gibt, "there is": "Es gibt einen Park in der Nähe." And the nominative appears on both sides of sein, werden and bleiben, because the second noun is the same person as the subject rather than an object: "Er ist ein guter Koch", never "einen guten Koch".

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The dative marks the indirect object: usually a person who receives something, or for whose benefit something is done. In English this person is marked by word order ("I gave my father a book") or by "to" ("I gave a book to my father"). German marks them with the dative, so verbs of giving, showing, telling and sending often have both a dative and an accusative object.

The verbs that work this way are the ones where something passes from one person to another: geben (give), schenken (give as a present), bringen (bring), zeigen (show), schicken (send), erklären (explain), leihen (lend), empfehlen (recommend), erzählen (tell). The thing is accusative, the person is dative.

The order of the two objects follows a simple rule. Two nouns: dative before accusative ("Ich zeige meiner Freundin die Fotos"). A pronoun goes before a noun, whatever its case ("Ich zeige ihr die Fotos", "Ich zeige sie meiner Freundin"). Two pronouns: accusative before dative ("Ich zeige sie ihr").

• Kannst du mir das Salz geben?Can you pass me the salt? (mir: dative; das Salz: accusative)
• Sie erklärt den Schülern die Aufgabe.She explains the task to the pupils. (den Schülern: dative plural, with -n on the noun)
• Wir schicken es unserer Tante.We are sending it to our aunt. (pronoun es first, then the dative noun)

The dative plural is the one place a noun reliably changes: it adds -n, on top of the plural ending. Die Kinder becomes den Kindern, die Freunde becomes den Freunden. Nouns whose plural already ends in -n or -s stay as they are: den Frauen, den Autos.

The genitive answers wessen?, whose? It links one noun to another, usually to say who owns or has something. The genitive phrase comes after the noun it describes, the reverse of English "my brother’s phone": das Handy meines Bruders, literally "the phone of my brother".

Masculine and neuter nouns take -es rather than -s when they have one syllable or end in s, ß, x or z: des Mannes, des Kindes, des Hauses. Many one-syllable nouns allow both (des Tags or des Tages). Feminine and plural nouns add nothing; the article der does all the work: der Frau, der Kinder.

Names work differently. A person’s name takes an -s and goes before the noun, without an apostrophe: Annas Handy, Peters Wohnung. In everyday speech, the genitive is often replaced by von plus the dative: "das Handy von meinem Bruder". That is fine in conversation, but in writing the genitive is still the normal form.

• Die Farbe des Autos gefällt mir.I like the colour of the car. (des Autos: neuter genitive)
• Das ist die Wohnung meiner Eltern.That is my parents’ flat. (meiner Eltern: plural genitive)
• Wegen des Wetters fällt das Spiel aus.The match is cancelled because of the weather. (wegen takes the genitive)

The definite article, "the", in every case and gender:

The indefinite article, "a", follows the same pattern of endings, and so do kein (no, not a) and the possessives mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer:

Three things make the table smaller than it looks. Only the masculine changes in the accusative. The dative plural always ends in -n, on the noun too (den Kindern). And masculine and neuter nouns add -s or -es in the genitive (des Mannes, des Autos). Notice also that der appears four times: masculine nominative, feminine dative, feminine genitive and genitive plural. The article alone does not always tell you the case; the article and the noun’s gender together do.

Personal pronouns change in the same three cases:

The pronouns follow the article: er, ihn, ihm match der, den, dem, and sie, sie, ihr match die, die, der. Learn one set and the other comes almost free. The genitive pronouns (meiner, deiner) are rare in modern German; the possessive articles mein, dein and so on do their job.

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After a preposition, the noun’s job in the sentence no longer matters: the preposition picks the case. Most prepositions always take the same one, so they are best learnt in groups.

Nine prepositions take either case, depending on the meaning: an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen. Grammars call them two-way prepositions (Wechselpräpositionen). Movement towards a place takes the accusative (the question is "wohin?", where to?); being in a place takes the dative ("wo?", where?). The clearest way to see it is one sentence with only the article changed.

In conversation a German speaker would often add herum to the second sentence ("Die Katze springt auf dem Tisch herum") to make "jumping about" explicit, but the case alone already carries the difference. Most two-way sentences are less symmetrical: the verb itself usually tells you whether there is movement. German has pairs of verbs for exactly this: legen / liegen (lay / lie), stellen / stehen (stand something up / be standing), setzen / sitzen (sit someone down / be sitting), and hängen for both (hang something up / be hanging).

• Ich gehe in die Küche.I am going into the kitchen. (Accusative: movement.)
• Ich bin in der Küche.I am in the kitchen. (Dative: location.)
• Sie legt das Buch auf den Tisch.She puts the book on the table. (Accusative.)
• Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch.The book is lying on the table. (Dative.)
• Er hängt die Jacke an den Haken.He hangs the jacket on the hook. (Accusative.)
• Die Jacke hängt am Haken.The jacket is hanging on the hook. (Dative: am = an dem.)

Some prepositions merge with the article that follows them, and the merged form hides the case unless you know it: im = in dem, ins = in das, am = an dem, ans = an das, zum = zu dem, zur = zu der, beim = bei dem, vom = von dem. "Ich bin im Büro" is dative (location); "Ich gehe ins Büro" is accusative (movement).

Most verbs take an accusative object, but a group of common ones take a dative object where English uses a plain object: helfen (help), danken (thank), gefallen (please, be liked by), gehören (belong to), antworten (answer), folgen (follow), glauben (believe a person), gratulieren (congratulate), passen (fit, suit), schmecken (taste good to). There is no rule that predicts them; they are learnt as a list, and the list is short.

• Kannst du mir helfen?Can you help me?
• Das Kleid gefällt ihr.She likes the dress. (Literally: the dress pleases her.)
• Wem gehört das Fahrrad?Whose bike is it? (Literally: to whom does the bike belong?)
• Ich danke Ihnen für die Einladung.Thank you for the invitation. (Ihnen: formal dative)

Gefallen deserves a closer look, because it turns the English sentence round. The thing that is liked is the subject, in the nominative, and the person who likes it is in the dative: "Der Film gefällt mir" means "I like the film", literally "the film pleases me". The verb agrees with the thing, so "Die Schuhe gefallen mir" has a plural verb. Schmecken (taste good to) and passen (suit, fit) work the same way: "Die Suppe schmeckt mir", "Der Termin passt mir".

A few verbs take the genitive (gedenken, bedürfen, and in older style sich erinnern), but they belong to formal and written German. For everyday use, the cases that verbs choose are the accusative and the dative.

• NotIch habe ein Hund.

  ButIch habe einen Hund.

  Hund is masculine and the direct object of haben, so the article takes the accusative ending: einen.

• NotIch gehe mit meinen Freund ins Kino.

  ButIch gehe mit meinem Freund ins Kino.

  Mit always takes the dative, whatever the noun’s job: meinem, not the accusative meinen.

• NotIch lege das Buch auf dem Tisch.

  ButIch lege das Buch auf den Tisch.

  The book is moving onto the table, so auf takes the accusative. Auf dem Tisch is where it lies afterwards.

• NotIch spiele mit den Kinder.

  ButIch spiele mit den Kindern.

  In the dative plural the noun adds -n as well as the article changing to den.

• NotIch helfe dich.

  ButIch helfe dir.

  Helfen takes a dative object. English "help you" has a plain object, German has dir.

• NotIch gefalle den Film.

  ButDer Film gefällt mir.

  Gefallen means "to please". The thing liked is the subject and the person who likes it is dative. "Ich gefalle" means "I am liked" or "I please".

One group of masculine nouns, the weak nouns, also adds -n or -en outside the nominative: der Student, den Studenten, dem Studenten; der Junge, den Jungen; der Kollege, dem Kollegen; der Herr, dem Herrn. They are worth learning as a list, because the case then shows on the noun as well as the article.

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Case endings are easiest to learn on sentences you actually need. Epsylo breaks a German sentence down word by word: each word is coloured by its grammatical role and explained, so you can open any article or noun and see which case it is in and what chose it: the verb, the preposition or its job in the sentence. Subjects, direct objects and indirect objects each get their own colour, and a dependency tree shows which article belongs to which noun.

Break down a German sentence

How many cases does German have?

Four: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. They show on the articles, on adjective endings and pronouns, and on some noun endings.

How do I know whether to use the accusative or the dative?

Ask what job the noun does. The direct object of most verbs is accusative; the person something is given to or done for is dative. After a preposition, the preposition decides, and the two-way prepositions (in, an, auf and six others) take the accusative for movement and the dative for location.

What are the German two-way prepositions?

An, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor and zwischen. They take the accusative when they describe movement towards a place (wohin?) and the dative when they describe a location (wo?): "Ich gehe in die Küche" but "Ich bin in der Küche".

Is the genitive dying out?

In everyday speech the genitive after prepositions is often replaced by the dative ("wegen dem Regen"), and possession by "von" ("das Auto von meinem Bruder"). In writing and formal speech the genitive is still standard, and "wegen des Regens" is the form to learn.

Do German nouns change in every case?

Mostly not. The article and adjective carry the case; the noun itself changes only in the genitive singular of masculine and neuter nouns (-s, -es), the dative plural (-n), and for the weak masculine nouns such as der Student.

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