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Nomina und Pronomina - Noun and Pronouns - auf Deutsch: der Dativ |
Noun phrases in a German sentence are in one of four grammatical cases:
We learned that noun phrases that are the subject of the German sentence are in the nominative case. These nouns do the action of the verb. Nominative case nouns are marked by the appropriate indefinite and definite articles.
We also learned that nouns that were the direct object of the German sentence are in the accusative case. These nouns are the direct recipient of the verb's action. Also, nouns that follow 5 prepositions, the accusative case prepositions, are in the accusative case. These prepositions are said to govern the accusative case.
The forms of the articles that precede nouns in these two cases are organized below.
| Maskulin | Feminin | Neutrum | Plural | |
| Nominative | der | die | das | die | Accusative | den | die | das | die |
And the indefinite articles:
| Maskulin | Feminin | Neutrum | Plural | |
| Nominative | ein | eine | ein | meine | Accusative | einen | eine | ein | meine |
The der/die/das forms all mean "the." The ein words all mean "a / an." There are even more forms of the definite article. Notice in the plural; there is no gender distinction, and the article "die" is used.
Study also the Possessive Adjectives. These useful words behave in exactly the same manner as ein: the possessive adjective take the same endings as ein; hence we call them ein words.
In German, nouns are in the dative case in several different situations:
Examine this German sentence closely:
The subject of the sentence is Ich - nominative case. The verb is from geben, and it agrees with its subject, and it is in the second slot of the sentence. After the verb are two noun phrases, der Mathelehrerin and die Hausaufgabe. "Die Hausaufgabe," a feminine noun, is in the accusative case: it answers the question What do I give? "Die Hausaufgabe" is the direct recipient of the verb's action, the act of giving. It is the thing being given. Since it is feminine accusative, the article before it is die.. Refer to the chart above for clarification.
Der Mathelehrerin is in the dative case. It is the indirect recipient of the verb's act of giving. The math teacher is not the noun being given; it is the noun to whom the object - the direct object - is being given. In German and as in English indirect objects answer the question to whom? or for whom?, and in German these indirect objects are in the dative case. Mathelehrerin is feminine in German; in the nominative and accusative its articles are die / eine, but in the dative case its articles change to der / einer.
Masculine, neuter and plural nouns also see changes in their articles in the dative case. Examine the chart below; it includes ALL the forms of the definite and indefinite articles in all three cases we have thus studied.
| Maskulin | Feminin | Neutrum | Plural | |
| Nominative | der | die | das | die | Accusative | den | die | das | die | Dative | dem | der | dem | den, -n |
And the indefinite articles:
| Maskulin | Feminin | Neutrum | Plural | |
| Nominative | ein | eine | ein | meine | Accusative | einen | eine | ein | meine | Dative | einem | einer | einem | meinen, -n |
Study also the Possessive Adjectives. These useful words behave in exactly the same way as ein: the possessive adjective take the same endings as ein; hence we call them ein words.
There are many verbs that can have both dative and accusative case objects. These verbs concern the act of giving
"something" (accusative case) to "to someone" (dative case). Here are a list of these commonly used verbs:
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pl. = plural, dat . = dative, acc.=accusative)
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Note the last example given above:
Bruder is masculine in German; its plural form is Brüder. In the dative case, however, an extra -n is added to the noun. This occurs in ALL plural nouns that are in the dative case: an extra -n is added to the noun. The only exception is when the plural form of the noun already ends in an -n. Example:
Conversation Exercise using the Dative Case - Was willst du deiner Familie zu Weihnachten schenken?
There are in German eight prepositions that always govern the dative case. Nouns phrases following these prepositions will always be in the dative case. These prepositions are:
Prepositions in any language are difficult in that they can carry different meanings. For instance, nach can mean "after" as in nach der Schule, or it can mean "to" as in nach Hamburg. It's often best to learn these prepositions in set phrases rather than in isolation. Here are a few prepositional phrases that you have been seeing for a long time already; now you know why they behave in this fashion:
Prepositions can often be contracted:
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bei + dem = beim zu + dem = zum von + dem = vom |