FA+
Shop
German Lesson 7: Defined Articles (Part 2) / the Four Cases
15 years ago
This lesson will very likely mess up what you thought to know about the German language after lesson 5. I told you that the English article "the" can be either "der", "die" or "das". In fact it can be a lot more different articles. Those three are the three articles of the first cases (German: "Fall" or "Kasus [lat.]", which is called "Nominativ".
The concept of cases is totally inexistant in the English language, which makes it hard to understand.
Basically there are four cases:
1. Nominativ
2. Genitiv
3. Dativ
4. Akkusativ
I've told you before, that a nouns has a gender (Genus), a number (Numerus) and now we'll add the last attribute which is its case (Kasus). The use of a noun in a sentence defines its casus.
Nominativ:
The Nominativ is the case of the sentence's subject. It can be questioned with "Who or what?". The articles you've learned in Lesson 5 are the articles of the Nominativ. The Nominative form is the normal form of a noun which you will find in dictionaries for example.
masculin -> der
feminine-> die
neutral-> das
plural -> die
Example:
E: The tree is green. Who or what is green? The tree!
G: Der Baum ist grün. Wer oder was ist grün? Der Baum!
Genitiv:
The Genetiv is the form of belonging / ownership. The Genitiv nouns of a sentence work as attributes of other nouns. It can be questioned with "Whose?".
masculin -> des
feminine -> der
neutral -> des
plural -> der
Masculin and neutral nouns get an "es" to their end or "s" if they end on a vowel, when they are in Gentiv case. When you look back to lesson 5, where I explained, how to interprete a German dictionary entry I let out the part written after the first semicolon. This part is the Genitiv ending! When your noun is a person, their name gets an "s" to the end of his name similar to the " 's " in English ( Harald's knife -> Haralds Messer).
To help your memory:
Mann, der; -[e]s, Plur. Männer; <example phrases>
-> the Genetiv ending is "-[e]s" which means you can write the genitive of "Mann" as "Manns" or "Mannes".
Example:
E: The man's leg is broken. Whose leg is broken? The man's (leg).
G: Das Bein (Nominativ) des Mannes (Genitiv) ist gebrochen. Wessen Bein ist gebrochen? Das Bein des Mannes. (You see, that you can only question the Gentiv noun indirectly with the thing it refers to)
E: The woman's leg is broken. Whose leg is broken? The woman's (leg).
G: Das Bein (Nominativ) der Frau (Genitiv, equal to Nominativ, because it's a feminine word) ist gebrochen. Wssen Bein ist gebrochen? Das Bein der Frau.
Dativ & Akkusativ
]Dativ and Akkusativ are two possible cases of a sentence's object. The Dativ object is the object that is effected by the action, specified in the predicate. The Akkusativ object is the target of the action / the one that is used. You can question the Dativ object with "Whom or what?".
Now we reach a point were the English language epically fails to differentiate .. because .. you can question the Akkusativ object with "Who or what?" .. yes you see right that's exactly the same like for the Nominativ ..in English. In German "who" can be two different question words. First is for the Nominative "wer" and second for the Akkusativ "wen". Fortunately it's easy to identify the subject of a sentence and since the subject is the only noun in Nominativ you don't have to worry if another noun is in Nominativ or Akkusativ.
Dativ:
masculin -> dem
feminine ->der
neutral ->dem
plural -> den
Akkusativ
masculin -> den
feminine -> die
neutral -> das
plural -> die
Example:
E: He swings the baseball bat at the ball.
Who or what does he swing? The baseball bat.
At whom or what does he swing it? At the ball.
G: Er schwingt de Baseballschläger nach dem Ball.
Wen oder was schwingt er? Den Baseballschläger.
Nach wem oder was schwingt er? Dem Ball.
I think you realized now how much more complicated the German language is compared to English XP
Exercise:
Pick one of the following English sentences and copy it. Then write behind each noun which case it would have in a German sentence (Nominativ, Genitiv, Dativ or Akkusativ). Use www.leo.org to find translations for the nouns and write down the nouns with their matching article for the case they have. Use www.duden.de when you're unsure about the word gender or Genitiv ending (enter word and press "suchen" button).
1. The car drives down the lane to Peter's house.
2. The guy buys Judy the drink she wanted.
3. The consumption of alcohol by minors is forbidden by the state.
The concept of cases is totally inexistant in the English language, which makes it hard to understand.
Basically there are four cases:
1. Nominativ
2. Genitiv
3. Dativ
4. Akkusativ
I've told you before, that a nouns has a gender (Genus), a number (Numerus) and now we'll add the last attribute which is its case (Kasus). The use of a noun in a sentence defines its casus.
Nominativ:
The Nominativ is the case of the sentence's subject. It can be questioned with "Who or what?". The articles you've learned in Lesson 5 are the articles of the Nominativ. The Nominative form is the normal form of a noun which you will find in dictionaries for example.
masculin -> der
feminine-> die
neutral-> das
plural -> die
Example:
E: The tree is green. Who or what is green? The tree!
G: Der Baum ist grün. Wer oder was ist grün? Der Baum!
Genitiv:
The Genetiv is the form of belonging / ownership. The Genitiv nouns of a sentence work as attributes of other nouns. It can be questioned with "Whose?".
masculin -> des
feminine -> der
neutral -> des
plural -> der
Masculin and neutral nouns get an "es" to their end or "s" if they end on a vowel, when they are in Gentiv case. When you look back to lesson 5, where I explained, how to interprete a German dictionary entry I let out the part written after the first semicolon. This part is the Genitiv ending! When your noun is a person, their name gets an "s" to the end of his name similar to the " 's " in English ( Harald's knife -> Haralds Messer).
To help your memory:
Mann, der; -[e]s, Plur. Männer; <example phrases>
-> the Genetiv ending is "-[e]s" which means you can write the genitive of "Mann" as "Manns" or "Mannes".
Example:
E: The man's leg is broken. Whose leg is broken? The man's (leg).
G: Das Bein (Nominativ) des Mannes (Genitiv) ist gebrochen. Wessen Bein ist gebrochen? Das Bein des Mannes. (You see, that you can only question the Gentiv noun indirectly with the thing it refers to)
E: The woman's leg is broken. Whose leg is broken? The woman's (leg).
G: Das Bein (Nominativ) der Frau (Genitiv, equal to Nominativ, because it's a feminine word) ist gebrochen. Wssen Bein ist gebrochen? Das Bein der Frau.
Dativ & Akkusativ
]Dativ and Akkusativ are two possible cases of a sentence's object. The Dativ object is the object that is effected by the action, specified in the predicate. The Akkusativ object is the target of the action / the one that is used. You can question the Dativ object with "Whom or what?".
Now we reach a point were the English language epically fails to differentiate .. because .. you can question the Akkusativ object with "Who or what?" .. yes you see right that's exactly the same like for the Nominativ ..in English. In German "who" can be two different question words. First is for the Nominative "wer" and second for the Akkusativ "wen". Fortunately it's easy to identify the subject of a sentence and since the subject is the only noun in Nominativ you don't have to worry if another noun is in Nominativ or Akkusativ.
Dativ:
masculin -> dem
feminine ->der
neutral ->dem
plural -> den
Akkusativ
masculin -> den
feminine -> die
neutral -> das
plural -> die
Example:
E: He swings the baseball bat at the ball.
Who or what does he swing? The baseball bat.
At whom or what does he swing it? At the ball.
G: Er schwingt de Baseballschläger nach dem Ball.
Wen oder was schwingt er? Den Baseballschläger.
Nach wem oder was schwingt er? Dem Ball.
I think you realized now how much more complicated the German language is compared to English XP
Exercise:
Pick one of the following English sentences and copy it. Then write behind each noun which case it would have in a German sentence (Nominativ, Genitiv, Dativ or Akkusativ). Use www.leo.org to find translations for the nouns and write down the nouns with their matching article for the case they have. Use www.duden.de when you're unsure about the word gender or Genitiv ending (enter word and press "suchen" button).
1. The car drives down the lane to Peter's house.
2. The guy buys Judy the drink she wanted.
3. The consumption of alcohol by minors is forbidden by the state.
ill try my best to be a good student ^^