Grammar: Cases - Nominative and Accusative

Grammar: Cases - Nominative and Accusative

1. Understanding the Concept

  • In German language, nouns and pronouns can take different forms based on their function in a sentence, it’s called case.
  • There are four cases in German: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, and Genitive. However, this section will cover the Nominative and Accusative cases.
  • Use Nominative case for the subject of a sentence. The subject is the person or thing doing an action.
  • Use Accusative case for the direct object of a sentence. The direct object is the person or thing that is directly receiving the action.

2. Identifying Nouns in Nominative Case

  • The nominative case is used for sentence subjects. The subject is who or what is doing the action.
  • For example, in the sentence “Der Junge isst einen Apfel”, “Der Junge” is the subject, thus it is in the nominative case.
  • All standalone nouns are in nominative case.

3. Identifying Nouns in Accusative Case

  • The accusative case is used for the direct object of the sentence. This is the object that the action is happening to.
  • In the sentence “Der Junge isst einen Apfel”, “einen Apfel” is the object, thus it is in the accusative case.

4. Noun Changes with Cases

  • Some nouns will change form between nominative and accusative case. This is usually seen in masculine nouns.
  • Masculine nouns change their article from “der” (the) in nominative to “den” in accusative.
  • Neuter and feminine nouns don’t change in the accusative form and remain “das” and “die” respectively.

5. Pronoun Changes with Cases

  • Pronouns also change forms between the two cases. For example, “ich” (I) in nominative becomes “mich” in accusative, “du” (you) becomes “dich”, and so on.
  • Practice identifying and using these differences regularly to become more comfortable with the concept of cases.

6. Prepositions and Cases

  • Some prepositions in German will always take the accusative case, such as “durch” (through), “für” (for), “gegen” (against), “ohne” (without), and “um” (around).
  • When using these prepositions, the object of the preposition will always be in the accusative case.

7. Case Errors to Avoid

  • Pay close attention when determining whether to use nominative or accusative. Mistakes in this aspect can lead to confusion in understanding.
  • Avoid using the nominative case for direct objects, even though this can be a common mistake among beginners.
  • Remember that even though English doesn’t have cases, learning German cases is instrumental to mastering the language.
  • Regularly practice translations between German and English to understand the use of cases better.