Cases & Pronouns

Alles ist toll! (Everything is great!)

In English, we say He likes Sam, but Sam likes him.

He changes to him because of the role it plays in the sentence.

German does the same thing, but with lots of words, including ein and der!

This change in form is known as case, and the four German cases are nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive.

Der Nominativ

The nominative case is used for sentence subjects, answers the question, “wer(who)?”. The subject is the person or thing that does the action.

For example, in the sentence, “the girl kicks the ball”, “the girl” is the subject.

Nominative Pronouns

Der Words

Remember, the word for the changes forms based on gender.

And here’s something neat — there’s a whole group of words called der words that follow this pattern!

Jede would imply that only females are welcome, since it's the feminine form.

Jeder is the masculine form and is also used for the "generic masculine", implying that everyone is welcome, regardless of their gender.

	RSEE
der Mann	dieser Mann	jeder Mann
das Kind	dieses Kind	jedes Kind
die Frau	diese Frau	jede Frau
die Blumen	diese Blumen

Dieser Apfel ist rund.

• This apple is round.

Die beiden Frauen?

Some words, such as beide and alle, are usually pretty noun‑y. Sometimes, though, they can be used as adjectives!

"Alles" means "everything". And "alle" means everybody.

Either Ihr beide, bitte! or Ihr beiden, bitte! would be ok.

used as a noun	used as an adjective
Beide mögen Kaffee. Both like coffee.	Die beiden Frauen sind toll. Both women are great.
Der Junge isst viel. The boy eats a lot.	Wir essen viele Kartoffeln. We eat many potatoes.

Notice the n in die beiden Frauen? Adjectives have endings to match the noun they’re with.

Der Akkusativ

The accusative case is for direct objects, known as the objective case in English, answers the question “wen(whom)?” and describes the direct object of a sentence.

The direct object is the person or thing that receives the action. So in “the girl kicks the ball”, “the ball” is the direct object.

The first case we’ll look at is called the accusative case!

basic form	accusative case
der Apfel	Ich habe den Apfel.
ein Apfel	Ich esse einen Apfel.

Ask yourself, What do you have? or What do you like? Your answer will use the accusative case.

masculine	der → den ein → einen
neuter	das → das ein → ein
feminine	die → die eine → eine

Note that only the masculine articles change in the accusative case.

A Quick Note On Word Order

German allows for more freedom of word placement, as long as we use the correct case.

Streicheln ich streichele or streichle du streichelst er/sie/es streichelt wir streicheln ihr streichelt sie/Sie streicheln

Following are a few examples of the accusative case:

• Der Mann streichelt den Hund. (The man pets the dog.)

• Er streichelt ihn. (He pets him, the dog.)

• Den Hund streichelt der Mann. (The man pets the dog.)

• Streichelt der Mann den Hund? (Is the man petting the dog?)

• Streichelt den Hund der Mann? (Is the man petting the dog?)

As you can see, the meaning of the sentence is derived from the case, rather than the word order.

Accusative Pronouns

I see you!!

Depending on who does the action and who receives the action, words like he and we can change, like We see him or He sees us. This happens in German too!

Ich höre. I hear.

Alle hören mich. Everyone hears me.

basic form	accusative form
ich I	mich me
du you	dich you
er he	ihn him
sie she	sie her
es it	es it
wir we	uns us
ihr you all	euch you all
sie they	sie them

Accusative Prepositions

There are a few prepositions that always take the accusative case:

durch (through) bis (until) für (for) ohne (without) entlang (along) gegen (against) um (around) …

Certain prepositions demand certain cases. For example, ohne and für demand the accusative — so the noun that follows uses accusative der word or ein word endings!

Der Park ist sehr schön.

• The park is very beautiful.

Der Zaun um* den Garten ist schön.

• The fence around the garden is beautiful.

Wir gehen durch den Park.

• We go through the park.

Es geht um die Fans.

• It is about the fans.

Der Hund läuft gegen die Wand.

• The dog runs into the wall.

The street along?

Watch out! Sometimes prepositions in German come at the end of the phrase instead of at the beginning.

Der Mann fährt die Straße entlang.

The man rides along the street.

Der Dativ

The dative case is for indirect objects, which describes the indirect object of a sentence in German and English and answers the question, “wem?” (whom), or “was?” (what).

The indirect object is the person or thing who “gets” the direct object. So in the sentence “The girl kicks the ball to the boy”, “the boy” is the indirect object.

• Ich (subject) schenke dir (dative indirect object) eine Blume (accusative direct object).

• Eine Blume (accusative direct object) schenke ich (subject) dir (dative indirect object).

• I'm (subject) giving you (indirect object) a flower (direct object).

	definite article	indefinite article
masculine	dem Vater	einem Vater
feminine	der Mutter	einer Mutter
neuter	dem Kind	einem Kind
plural	den Eltern	Eltern

Several prepositions take the dative case:

• aus (out)

• auβer (besides)

• bei (next to)

• mit (with)

• nach (after)

• seit (since)

• von (from)

• zu (to)

• gegenüber (opposite)

And some German verbs always take the dative case. These verbs are:

• antworten (to answer)

• danken (to thank)

• glauben (to believe)

• helfen (to help)

• gehören (belong to)

• gefallen (to like)

Der Genitiv

The genitive case indicates possession and answers the question “wessen?” or “whose?” . In English, we show possession with an apostrophe + s “the girl's ball”.

For example:

• Das Haus meines Vaters (My father's house). The genitive case is common in written German.

• Das Haus von meinem Vater (My father's house). The dative case often replaces the genitive case in spoken German.

	definite article	indefinite article
masculine	des Vaters	eines Vaters
feminine	der Mutter	einer Mutter
neuter	des Kindes	eines Kindes
plural	der Eltern	Eltern

The masculine and neuter forms require either an -s or -es ending. Single syllable words take an -es ending, while words with multiple syllables take an -s ending. Here are a few examples.

• Der Koffer des Mannes (The man's suitcase)

• Die Spielzeuge des Kindes (The child's toys)

• Das Buch meines Bruders (My brother's book)

• Das Auto meiner Schwesters (My sister's car)

Just as the dative case, certain prepositions always take the genitive case:

• anstatt (instead of)

• außerhalb (outside of)

• innerhalb (inside of)

• trotz (despite)

• während (during)

• wegen (because of)

Possessive Pronouns

What’s mein is mein!

Possessive words, like my and your, show that something belongs to someone!

ich	mein
du	dein
er	sein
sie	ihr
wir	unser
you all’s	eure for feminine and euer for masculine
sie	ihr

Words like mein use the same word endings as ein. Words in this group are called ein words! When a noun performs the action in a sentence (like My dad sleeps a lot!), use this ending pattern:

	ein word endings
ein Mann	Dein Mann schläft.
ein Kind	Dein Kind hat Hunger.
eine Hose	Deine Hose ist weit.
keine Kinder	Deine Kinder essen.

When phrases like my book or his cheese receive the action, remember to use the accusative ein word pattern! Remember, only the masculine nouns change.

einen Käse a cheese	Wir essen seinen Käse.
eine Schokolade a chocolate	Wir essen seine Schokolade.
ein Wasser a water	Der Hund trinkt sein Wasser.
keine Schuhe no shoes	Sie trägt meine Schuhe.

In the nominative case (used in subject of a sentence) the forms are the same as of indefinite article: _ein (m), _eine (f), _ein (n), _eine* (Pl)

Er ist mein Mann!

He is my husband!

Sie isst einen Apfel und sie essen Brot.

She is eating an apple and they are eating bread.

Does he not like you?

Mag er dich nicht?

Everybody hears me. Alle hören mich /Jeder hört mich.

Jeder ist willkommen.

Everyone is welcome.

Alle mögen sie.

Everyone likes them.

Niemand ist gut.

No one is good.

Manche Jungen schreiben.

Some boys write.

Hast du etwas Milch?

Do you have some milk?

Er ist jemand.

He is someone.

Hat jemand eine Jacke?

Does anyone have a jacket?

Sie haben ein paar Kartoffeln.

They have a few potatoes.

Wir bezahlen alles.

We pay for everything.

I like this jewelry. Ich mag diesen Schmuck.

Children, we like that?

Kinder, mögen wir das?

Many people like our book.

Viele Menschen mögen unser Buch.

Ich kenne euch nicht.

I do not know you.

Dieses Mädchen bin ich.

I am that girl. / This girl is me.