It has two masculine nouns (Mann, Ball) but the words for "the" are different.Â. The woman picked two flowers for the man. (We saw a car). For this example, we’ll use these words: Let’s start with a simple sentence that looks a lot like English. Using what you've learned in this lesson, can you tell who is doing the hating, and who is being hated? If you repeat both, this lesson will be much easier. If you ask yourself: “TO whom or FOR whom is this being done?”, the answer will be the indirect object, and in German it will need the dative case. All other genders stay the same. We'll walk you through this in baby steps. How? In other words, when it's the thing being affected (or "verbed") in the sentence. But there's another time you'll use the accusative case. In the following examples, the pronouns change according to their function in the sentence and are indicated in bold. How to order food in a restaurant by saying "I would like...", What "cases" are, why you need them, and how to use the. There are some connecting words (prepositions) which always signal that you should use the accusative case. Die Frau liest das Buch. Ohne is an accusative preposition, meaning that "the men" (die Männer)  needs to be in the accusative case. The articles above are used for nouns on their own, or when they are the subject of the sentence.This is called the nominative case. the power of cases! It's in the accusative case, which means the dog is the direct object in the sentence (or the thing being hated ). Zum Beispiel Remember how every noun in German has a gender? The structure of regular verbs, and the important verb, Who? There is NO declensional change for a neuter noun in this case. ** The **Nominative** case is the case that contains the subject of a sentence. Right, let’s get stuck into the heart of the German language, the cases. The questions for the accusative are “whom” (“wen”) or “ what” (“was”). If we change the order of the words, we get a completely different meaning. But now, let’s look at another sentence. But this only happens with masculine nouns. In this one, it’s pretty easy to figure out which animal hates the other because of the word order. 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. The cases are an important part of German grammar as they are responsible for the endings of adjectives, indefinite articles and when to use which personal pronoun. If a noun is the direct object in a sentence (that is, it is on the receiving end of the action), you use the accusative case. So, in a nutshell, all you need to remember for the indefinite articles in the accusative case is that 'ein' changes to ' einen ' for a masculine noun. Now that you've got that nailed, let's look at our first German 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.Â. : And here are some examples of the ACCUSATIVE case: . Right. The forms of, If none of the other conditions apply, then you need to determine which noun in the sentence is the. That’s because word order really matters in English! See if you can spot the difference. Die Frau liest das Buch. ), Take a second and see if you can come up with a memory trick to remember these accusative prepositions. Genitive While English does not have marked cases, you will still get the benefit of refreshing your English grammar as we compare the two languages. See? The questions for the accusative are “whom” (“wen”) or “ what” (“was”). In this example “Anna” is the direct object, “Paul” is the subject and “loves” is the action. Handout: Nominative, Accusative, and Dative: When to Use Them. How to compare things in German (i.e., better, best) using comparatives and superlatives. So for some reason unknown to humans, the bird hates the dog. Does the dog hate the bird? How many? (Despite the fact that it's a bunch of very masculine men, hah! They don't seem to understand the case system of German. See how that works? Just as nominative "I" changes to the object "me" in English, the German nominative ich changes to accusative mich in German. In some cases a noun doesn’t need an article at all, for example names, like Jana or Melina. Learn and enjoy the German language with Jabbalab! Then check your answer below. As you know you can use the questions “who” (“wer”) or “what” (“was”) in the nominative case to find out what the subject of the sentence is. 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. I know lesson No 14 was a little complicated. In English, we use word order to show who is doing what to whom. 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. Ok! Maybe they do by now, or a beginner stumbles upon this, here is a clear-up of **Nominative and Accusative. Have a look at the examples below. Durch is another one of our accusative prepositions, which means das Haus needs to be in the accusative case. But because die Männer is plural, it doesn't change, even in the accusative case. In the accusative case the masculine article is different. Keep your eye on the ball! He is the one doing the action (petting) to the dog.This means that the man, “he,” is in nominative case. There are nominative forms of the pronouns and of the definite and indefinite articles. In other words, who is doing what to whom in a sentence. Or the bird hates the dog? The German accusative case and nominative case – Part 2. Here are some example sentences, and how to break them down into subject / verb / direct object. 2nd noun = Kind = not doing … As I have strengthened some beginner lessons on my tree, I have come across many new ones asking for help. If you need reference to these, here's a table of the different endings and pronouns in the three cases: It may help you to remember these changes with the mnemonic device “rese nese mr mn” -- in other words, To ask “who” in German, you need to decided whether the “who” is the subject, the direct object, or the indirect object. In order to choose the correct word for "the", you need to know the gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) of the noun and the case: Um is another one of our accusative prepositions, which means der Park needs to be in the accusative case. There are four cases in the German language: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. Cases represent the parts of speech within a sentence. The girl (das Mädchen) is playing the leading part, because the girl is doing something. That was another cunning one. German Nominative. Take a look at this second example that uses two feminine nouns (Frau, Blume): See how they're both the same? As you know you can use the questions “who” (“wer”) or “what” (“was”) in the nominative case to find out what the subject of the sentence is. And because der Mann is a masculine noun, it changes to den Mann. A “case” just means you somehow mark or change a noun to show what it’s doing in a sentence. Accusative or nominative. Ich glaube, dass der Vogel den Hund hasst. Up until now we've been using the accusative for things that are the direct object in a sentence: Or the thing being "verbed".