AS Grammar: The Case System

AS Grammar: The Case System

Grammar: The Case System

Overview of Cases

• German has four cases: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, and Genitive.
• Each case represents a different grammatical function of a noun or pronoun within a sentence.

Nominative Case

• The nominative case is used for the subject of a sentence, i.e., the person or thing doing the action. For example, in the sentence ‘Der Mann läuft.’ (‘The man is running’), ‘Der Mann’ is in the nominative case.

Accusative Case

• The accusative case is used for the direct object of a sentence, i.e., the person or thing that the action is done to. For example, in the sentence ‘Ich sehe den Hund.’ (‘I see the dog’), ‘den Hund’ is in the accusative case.
• Some prepositions always take the accusative case, such as “durch”, “für”, “gegen”, “ohne” and “um”.

Dative Case

• The dative case is used for the indirect object of a sentence, i.e., the person or thing that is indirectly affected by the action. For example, in the sentence ‘Ich gebe dem Hund das Essen.’ (‘I give the dog the food’), ‘dem Hund’ is in the dative case.
• Some prepositions always take the dative case, such as “aus”, “bei”, “mit”, “nach”, “seit”, “von” and “zu”.

Genitive Case

• The genitive case is used to express possession or belonging. For example, ‘Das Buch des Mannes.’ (‘The man’s book’), ‘des Mannes’ is in the genitive case.
• Some prepositions always take the genitive, such as “während” and “wegen”. However, in everyday language, the genitive is often replaced by the dative case with “von”.

Remember, correct usage of cases is a crucial aspect of German grammar. Keep practising!