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Forms
of der/das/die and personal pronouns
You
should be very familiar with the forms of the personal pronouns
and of the der- and ein- words in the various cases and genders.
If you are not confident with these, investing a little time
now to learn them will help you A LOT with your German immediately.
Click below to see charts with the forms of these words,
as well as some mnemonic hints and mechanical exercises to help
you practice:
- the
forms of der/das/die and
ein-words
- the
forms of the personal
pronouns (this chart includes the possessive adjectives
"mein," "dein," etc. in the last column, but does not give
their endings. Remember that the endings of the possessive
adjectives are the same as the endings of "ein," which are
given in the chart just above the pronoun chart)
Nominative
This
is the case for the subject, the person doing
the action. The verb always agrees with the subject, as
in English ("I am tall," not "I is tall" etc.):
| Ich
esse den SPAM. Heute geht der Hund mit mir in
die Schule. Den Mann im Mond habe ich gestern
mit meinem Teleskop gesehen. Beethoven schrieb
die neunte Symphonie, als er taub war. |
Always
use Nominative after sein:
| Wir
sind die Welt./Die Welt sind wir.
[=We are the world.] |
| Ulla
ist die Lehrerin./Die Lehrerin ist Ulla. |
In
these examples, all the nouns are in the nominative, but only
"wir" and "Ulla" are the subjects of their sentences;
"die Welt" and "die Lehrerin" are "predicate nominatives."
The difference is that the verb agrees with the subject, and
need not agree with predicate nominatives. In the first
example, "wir" is the subject, whereas "die Welt" just completes
the meaning of the verb "sein": "We are what?" ==> "We are
the world." This may sound abstract, but you generally
do this right instinctively: the reason you don't say "We
is the world" (even though "the world" is third person singular)
is that you know "we" is the subject of that sentence, and
"the world" is just the predicate nominative and the verb
need not agree with it.
Predicate
nominatives are also used with a few other verbs, notably
"werden" [=to become] and "bleiben" [=to stay]. Note
how the verbs agree with the subjects in each case:
| Ich
[subject] werde Lehrer[Pred. Nom.]. Er
[subject] ist ein Professor [Pred. Nom.] geworden.
Sie [subject] bleibt Studentin[Pred. Nom.].
Du [subject] bist ein Idiot [Pred. Nom.]
geblieben. |
Accusative
For
the direct object of the action: who it's being
done to (even if that action is not much of an activity, like
"having"):
| Wir
kochen Bambi. Du hast einen kleinen Kopf.
Die Schlüssel [=keys] habe ich. Ich kann
deinen Bauchnabel sehen. |
Always
use accusative after the accusative prepositions (click
here for more info on prepositions):
| bis,
durch, für, gegen, ohne, um |
Two-way
prepositions (in, auf, an, unter, hinter, neben, vor, zwischen')
take accusative with motion and dative
with location (click
here for more info on prepositions):
This
nonsense mnemonic might help you with this:
"Accusative-Cruisative;
Dative-Stative"
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Ich
gehe in die Klasse [Acc.]. Ich bin in der
Klasse [Dat.].
Ich gehe ans Fenster [Acc.].
Ich stehe am Fenster [Dat.].
Ich will nicht unter mein Bett
gehen [Acc.]. Unter meinem Bett ist ein Monster
[Dat.]. |
Always
use the accusative with "es gibt" [=there is/are]:
| Es
gibt mehr Bakterien als Insekten. In Ann
Arbor gibt es einen schönen Park. |
Dative
The
Dative is for the indirect object, i.e. the recipient
or beneficiary of the action. If you give/show/recommend
(etc.) something to someone, then that person is in the dative,
and the thing you are giving/showing/recommending is the direct,
accusative object of the verb. If you do something for
someone (e.g. tell them a story, water their plants for them,
cut their hair), then that person is in the dative, and the
story, the plants, the hair (etc.) are the direct, accusative
object of the verb.
| Ich
gebe meiner Mutter einen Kuß. Elvis gibt
seiner Mutter einen rosa Cadillac. Bitte zeig
[=show] mir deine Tätowierung [=tattoo].
Hans empfiehlt [=recommends] uns einen guten
Wein. |
Always
use dative with the dative prepositions (click
here for more info on prepositions):
| [sing
to "Blue Danube"!] aus, außer, bei, mit, nach,
seit, von, zu |
A
few verbs take only dative objects; i.e. by a quirk of grammatical
history, the thing that those verbs are done to, which should
by rights be the direct, accusative object, is in fact considered
to be an indirect, dative object. The most important examples
of these "dative verbs":
| helfen,
glauben [for believing someone], gefallen, gehören, danken,
schmecken [=to taste good/bad], weh tun [for who
is being hurt] |
| Die
Frau hilft dem Mann; Bitte glaub mir;
Das Lied gefällt mir; Die Britney Spears CD gehört mir; Ihm tut der
Kopf weh; Ich will dir nicht weh tun... |
Two-way
prepositions (in, auf, an, unter, hinter, neben, vor, zwischen...)
take accusative with motion and dative
with location (click
here for more info on prepositions):
Ich
gehe in die Klasse [Acc.]. Ich bin in der
Klasse [Dat.].
Ich gehe ans Fenster [Acc.].
Ich stehe am Fenster [Dat.].
Ich will nicht unter mein Bett
gehen [Acc.]. Unter meinem Bett ist ein Monster
[Dat.]. |
Genitive
For
expressing possession--note the word order is not like English:
| Das
ist der Hut des Mannes. Das ist der Porsche meiner
Schwester. Dtv Lexikon [=dictionary] der deutschen
Sprache. Hast du das Nummernschild [=licence plate]
des Autos gesehen? Der Sponsor des zweiten "O"s im "Hollywood" Zeichen in Los Angeles ist Alice Cooper (zu Ehren von [=in honor of] Groucho Marx); der Sponsor des "Y"s ist Hugh Hefner. |
Don't
confuse genitive and possessive adjectives:
| Das
ist sein Hut. Das ist ihr Porsche. [No
genitive!--the possessive adjective ("his," "her") already
indicates possession] |
| Die
Farbe meines Hutes ist schwarz. Das sind die
Schlüssel [=keys] ihres Autos. [possessive
adjective in the genitive!--the color of his
hat; the keys of her car] |
Also
use the Genitive after the Genitive prepositions (click
here for more info on prepositions):
| (an)statt,
trotz, während, wegen, außer-/inner-/ober-/unterhalb,
diesseits/jenseits/beiderseits |
Note
that the Dative is increasingly being used instead of the
Genitive, especially in spoken German, after the prepositions
(an)statt, trotz, während, and
wegen.
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