22/06/2024, 10:47 German Nominative and Accusative cases + audio

Introduction to German
"cases"
WHAT "CASES" ARE AND WHY YOU NEED THEM: MEET THE
"NOMINATIVE" AND "ACCUSATIVE" CASES

Hold onto your Bratwürste, you're about to

learn...
What German "cases" are and why they're
important What the nominative case is, and how
to use it
What the accusative case is, and how to use that too!
Accusative prepositions — i.e., situations
when you must use the accusative case

We are going to take a brief break from the Jens and Julia love affair to talk
about a very important part of the German language. We’ll catch up with the
lovebirds later.
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What is a "case"?
The whole idea of cases is probably a little strange to English speakers
because it’s not something we use very often in our own language.

A “case” just means you somehow mark or change a noun to show what
it’s doing in a sentence. Cases don’t show up too often in English, but they
are essential in German.

In English, we use word order to show who is doing what to whom.

The president gave the dog to the boy

If we change the order of the words, we get a completely different meaning.
That’s because word order really matters in English!

The boy gave the dog to the president

The dog gave the president to the boy
But watch out! In German, word order is much more flexible than English.
And in longer sentences, sentence parts can start moving around in strange
ways.

For example, verbs might jump to the end of the German sentence, or you
might see three nouns sitting right next to each other in the middle of a
German sentence.

This is why cases are so important in German. You can use the "little
words" in front of a noun to figure out who the subject and object are in a
sentence. In other words, who is doing what to whom in a sentence.

Let’s look at an example. For this example, we’ll use these words:

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der Vogel the bird

der Hund the dog

hassen to hate

Let’s start with a simple sentence that looks a lot like English. In this one,
it’s pretty easy to figure out which animal hates the other because of
the word order.

Der Vogel hasst den Hund. The bird hates the dog.

No sweat, right?

But now, let’s look at another sentence. In this one, the verb (hasst) has
moved to the very end of the sentence, and we have two nouns (der Vogel
and den Hund) hanging out next to one another.

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Ich glaube, dass der Literally: I think, that the bird

Vogel den Hund hasst. the dog hates.

You might wonder, “Wait, what’s going on? Does the dog hate the bird?
Or the bird hates the dog? (And why can't they just get along?)”

But a German speaker has no trouble figuring out that little riddle, because
the "little words" (der and den) are revealing everything, through (dun
dun dunnnn!) the power of cases!

We'll walk you through this in baby steps. First, we need to understand the
different parts of a sentence.

Parts of a sentence
To understand German cases, you have to understand the different parts of a
sentence. Here are three really important parts. (There are other parts, but
these three are the focus of this lesson.)

Subject: Who/what does the action

Verb: The action
Direct object: Who/what is being affected by the action (or as I like to
say, what is being "verbed"?)

Here are some example sentences, and how to break them down into subject
/ verb / direct object.

Jens plays the accordion for his girlfriend.

Subject Jens
(Who/what does the
action?)

plays
Verb
(The action)
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Direct object the accordion

(What is being "verbed"?)
(the accordion is being played)

Jens writes poetry at night.

Subject Jens
(Who/what does the action?)

Verb writes
(The action)

Direct object poetry

(What is being "verbed"?)
(the poetry is being written)

Jens’s bike lost a tire.

Subject bike
(Who/what does the action?)

Verb lost
(The action)

Direct object a tire

(What is being "verbed"?)
(the tire was lost)

Just to make sure you’ve got that down, take a second and figure out the
subject and the direct object in each of these sentences. (Then click to check
your answers.)

The woman wrote a letter

Subject: the woman
Direct object: a letter

I always call my mother

Subject: I
Direct object: my
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mother

Yesterday, the boys found Subject: the boys

a ball Direct object: a ball

Oma yelled at Jens Subject: Oma

Direct object: Jens

Ok! Now that you've got that nailed, let's look at our first German case.

Subject of the sentence: The "nominative" case

Right. Remember how every noun in German has a gender? In a previous
lesson, you learned that the word “the” is different for each gender. Here’s a
quick refresher:

Masculine der der Mann (the man)

der Ball (the ball)

Neutral das das Buch (the book)

das Auto (the car)

Feminine die die Uhr (the clock)

die Frau (the woman)

Plural die die Blumen (the Jowers)

It turns out that those little words (der/die/das) change depending on

whether the noun is the subject of the sentence or the direct object.

If the noun is the subject of the sentence (it is doing the action in the
sentence), then it belongs in the nominative case.

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Luckily you already know each word for “the” when the noun is in the
nominative case.

Nominative / subject / "doer" of the sentence

NOMINATIVE
(Subject of the masculine neutral feminine plural
sentence) der das die die

Let's see it in action.

Masculine Der Mann fährt The man drives

das Auto. the car.

Neutral Das Auto ist The car is fast.

schnell.

Feminine Die Frau ist The woman is short.

klein.

Plural Die Männer sind The men are old.

alt.

See? You didn’t even have to learn anything for the nominative case because
you already knew this.

Accusative / direct object / "done-er" of the sentence

The "accusative case" is used when the noun is the direct object in the
sentence. In other words, when it's the thing being affected (or "verbed") in
the sentence.

And when a noun is in the accusative case, the words for "the" change a teeny
tiny bit from the nominative. See if you can spot the difference.

NOMINATIVE
(Subject of the

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sentence)
masculine neutral feminine plural
der das die die

ACCUSATIVE
masculine neutral feminine plural
(Direct object
of the den das die die
sentence)

Did you spot it? Yup, if the noun happens to be masculine, then when it
is the direct object in the sentence, it changes to "den" instead of "der".
All other genders stay the same.

Take a look at this sentence. It has two masculine nouns (Mann, Ball) but
the words for "the" are different.

Der Mann findet den Ball. The man nds the ball.

See how that works? It's because der Mann is the subject/nominative,
while den Ball is the direct object/accusative.

But this only happens with masculine nouns. Take a look at this second
example that uses two feminine nouns (Frau, Blume):

Die Frau findet die Blume. The woman nds the Jower.

See how they're both the same? For everything other than the masculine
words, the word for "the" is exactly the same for the subject/nominative as it
is for the direct object/accusative.

Other times you'll use the accusative

Up until now we've been using the accusative for things that are the direct
object in a sentence: Or the thing being "verbed".

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But there's another time you'll use the accusative case. There are some
connecting words (prepositions) which always signal that you should use
the accusative case.

That means, if you see any of these bad boys in a sentence, the noun after
the word should be in the accusative case!

Accusative prepositions

bis until

durch through

für for

gegen against

wieder against (contrary to)

ohne without

entlang along

um around

Let’s look at some example sentences with these accusative prepositions.

Die Frau pflückt zwei The woman picked two Jowers

Blumen für den Mann. for the man.

Für is one of our accusative prepositions, so it signals that the next noun in
the sentence (der Mann) should be in the accusative case. And because
der Mann is a masculine noun, it changes to den Mann.

Ich gehe um den Park. I go around the park.

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Um is another one of our accusative prepositions, which means der

Park needs to be in the accusative case. And because der Park is a
masculine noun, it changes to den Park.

Ich gehe durch das Haus. I go through the house.

That was a slightly tricky one. Durch is another one of our accusative
prepositions, which means das Haus needs to be in the accusative case. But
because das Haus is a neutral noun, it doesn't change.

Wir singen ohne die We are singing without the men.

Männer.

That was another cunning one. Ohne is an accusative preposition, meaning

that "the men" (die Männer) needs to be in the accusative case. But
because die Männer is plural, it doesn't change, even in the accusative
case. (Despite the fact that it's a bunch of very masculine men, hah! Keep
your eye on the ball!)

Take a second and see if you can come up with a memory trick to remember
these accusative prepositions. Some people turn them into a little song.
(Come on, we know you have a beautiful singing voice!) Other people like to
put them in a certain order that seems to “flow.”

Whatever works for you. But it’s definitely worth the time to memorize this
list:

durch — für — gegen — ohne — um — bis — entlang — wieder

The puzzling case of the dog and the bird

Remember at the start of this lesson when you met a dog and a bird who just
couldn't see eye to eye? We gave you a confusing sentence where it was
hard to know whether the bird hates the dog, or the dog hates the bird.

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Ich glaube, dass der Vogel Literally: I think, that the bird
den Hund hasst. the dog hates.

Using what you've learned in this lesson, can you tell who is doing the
hating, and who is being hated? Take another look at the sentence above
and try to work it out. Then check your answer below.

Correct translation: "I think that the bird hates the dog."

Both "bird" (der Vogel) and "dog" (der Hund) are masculine nouns, and
we can see in that sentence that der Hund has changed to den Hund. It's
in the accusative case, which means the dog is the direct object in the
sentence (or the thing being hated).

So for some reason unknown to humans, the bird hates the dog.

Mystery solved, thanks to cases!

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