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Lesson 1: Meet Jens — Your German language tour guide
Introductions, personal pronouns, formal vs informal address, and the important verb "to be"
Lesson 2: You already speak German! (kind of...)
English/German similarities, cognates, false friends, and the rise of "Denglisch"
Lesson 3: Attack of the German sounds and symbols!
How to pronounce German words: How to say those Ä, Ö, Ü symbols and that weird ß thing
Lesson 4: Introduction to German nouns (and nieces)
German nouns, noun genders, plural nouns, and all the different ways to say "the"
Lesson 5: German greetings and essentials
Greetings, yes and no, please and thank you: The bare minimum you need to survive!
Lesson 6: Introduction to German verbs
The structure of regular verbs, and the important verb "to have"
Lesson 7: Commands
How to give polite and informal commands
Lesson 8: Questions words
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? How much? How many? How to form basic questions in German
Lesson 9: Smalltalk! Talking about yourself in German
How to say "my name is…", where you come from, and talk about things you like
Lesson 10: How to compare things
How to compare things in German (i.e., better, best) using comparatives and superlatives.
Lesson 11: Ordering in a restaurant
How to order food in a restaurant by saying "I would like..."
Lesson 12: Introduction to German cases
What "cases" are, why you need them, and how to use the nominative and accusative cases.
Lesson 13: The "lazy dative" case
What the "dative" is, when to use it, and why it's the laziest of all the cases.
Lesson 14: German numbers
How to count from zero to one billion in German
lesson 15: Slang and expressions
Some common slang and expressions to make your German sound more natural

More German cases: The Dative case

One more case for the road! meet the "dative" case — the laziest of all the cases!

Otto lying on the couch being lazy

Hold onto your Bratwürste, you're about to learn...

  • How to recognize the "indirect object" in a sentence (and what to do when you find it!)
  • More cases! This time we'll look at the "dative" case
  • Dative prepositions — i.e., situations when you must use the dative case

A quick note: If you haven’t already checked out the previous lesson on the nominative case and the accusative case, start there. (You’ll want to tackle that first.) 

After that, you’ll be ready to dig into the dative case! 

More parts of a sentence

In the last lesson we introduced you to these parts of a sentence:

  • 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"?)

To understand the dative case, we need to add one more part:

  • Indirect object: Who/what is passively receiving the action or just kind of hanging out in the sentence, doing nothing?

What on earth do we mean by that? Here are a few sentences to illustrate what we mean by "just handing out doing nothing":

  • Jens plays the accordion for his girlfriend.
Subject
(Who/what does the action?)
Jens
Verb
(The action)
plays
Direct object
(What is being "verbed"?)
the accordion
(the accordion is being played)
Indirect object
(What is passively receiving the action, or just kind of hanging out?)
his girlfriend
  • I gave my friend the keys
Subject
(Who/what does the action?)
I
Verb
(The action)
gave
Direct object
(What is being "verbed"?)
the keys
(the keys are being given)
Indirect object
(What is passively receiving the action, or just kind of hanging out?)
my friend
  • Mary opened the door for the old man.
Subject
(Who/what does the action?)
Mary
Verb
(The action)
opened
Direct object
(What is being "verbed"?)
the door
(the door was opened)
Indirect object
(What is passively receiving the action, or just kind of hanging out?)
the old man

Okay, now you try a few. Take a look at the example sentence. Identify the subject, action, direct object, and indirect object. Then click the sentence to see if you were right!

The man reads a book to the boy
Click for the answer
Subject: the man
Verb: reads
Direct object: a book
Indirect object: the boy
The teacher explained the problem to the student
Click for the answer
Subject: the teacher
Verb: explained
Direct object: the problem
Indirect object: the student
The letter was sent to the office
Click for the answer
Subject: ??? 
Verb: sent
Direct object: the letter
Indirect object: the office
(Ha ha! This one is tricky! In this sentence there was no subject. This is something that can happen. Did you figure that out?)

Great! Now that you can identify direct and indirect objects, let’s talk about the dative case.

Dative part 1: Indirect objects

You’ve already learned that we use the nominative case for the subject of the sentence and the accusative case for the direct object of the sentence. 

Well here's the third piece of the puzzle: If there is an indirect object in a sentence, it needs to be in the dative case.

  • The man reads a book to the children
Nominative
the man
Accusative
a book
Dative
the children
MEMORY TRICK: Remember how indirect objects just kind of passively hang out in the sentence while something else or someone else does all the work?

It might help to remember this case as the Lazy Dative.
Otto on the couch being lazy, just like the dative case

Now take a deep breath, it's about to get crazy

So what does the dative case even look like? 

Remember, we show the “case” of a noun in German usually by changing the “little words” which appear in front of the noun, such as der/die/das. 

Take a look at the words for “the” we use in the dative case:

Nominative
(Subject of the sentence)
masculine
der
neutral
das
feminine
die
plural
die
Accusative
(Direct object of the sentence)
masculine
den
neutral
das
feminine
die
plural
die
Dative
(Indirect object of the sentence)
masculine
dem
neutral
dem
feminine
der
plural
den
(+n attached to noun)

You probably remember that the nominative and accusative cases were very similar. The only word that changed in the chart was the masculine. Easy peasy.

But in the dative case, ALL the words change. That means we have more to memorize. Boooo.

Plus there's an extra quirky rule for plurals:

Plural nouns in the dative case: Gimme an -n!

As if things weren't tricky enough already, if you have a plural noun, and it belongs in the dative case (because it’s the indirect object), you have to add “n” to the end of the noun (unless the word already ends in an “n” or an “s”). 

Let's look at the plural word "children" (die Kinder) as an example.

If children is the subject of the sentence (nominative), we use the word die.

Play
Die Kinder singen
The children sing.

If children is the direct object (accusative case), it stays die:

Play
Ich sehe die Kinder.
I see the children.

But, if children is the indirect object... BOOM, it changes! Not only does die become den, but we also have to add an “n” to the word because it did not end in –n or –s.

Play
Der Mann gibt den Kindern das Buch
The man gives the children the book.

(Remember that the children are the indirect object in this sentence, because they're just passively receiving the book. The man is doing the action, the book is the thing being given, and those kids are getting the book without having to do any work. They're the lazy datives in this sentence.)

Let's give it a whirl: Example sentences with the dative case

Right. Let's put all that together and see how it plays out in a sentence.

Play
der Mann
(Masculine noun)
Play
Ich gebe dem Mann das Buch.
I give the man the book.
der becomes dem. (Remember the man is just hanging out while I do all the work of getting the book. He is lazy dative!)
Play
das Kind
(Neutral noun)
Play
Ich gebe dem Kind das Buch.
I give the kid the book.
das becomes dem.
(That lazy kid! Use "lazy dative")
Play
die Frau
(Feminine noun)
Play
Ich gebe der Frau das buch.
I give the woman the book.
die becomes der.
Play
die Kinder
(Plural noun)
Play
Ich gebe den Kindern das Buch.
I give the kids the book.
die becomes den.
(And we add an -n to the end of kinder.)
Play
die Chefs
(Plural noun)
Play
Ich gebe den Chefs das Buch.
I give the bosses the book.
die becomes den.
(Watch out! We don't need to add an extra -n if the word ends in "n" or "s".)

Intermission: You're right — this is hard.

I want to take a little pause here just to offer some reassurance.

Don't feel bad if you find this really hard to wrap your head around. It’s one of the hardest parts of learning German and even the best students need a lot of practice. 

While the accusative and the nominative were fairly straightforward, the dative also tends to be harder to learn because the word that you usually associate with masculine, der, is now what we use for the feminine. And the new word we just memorized for accusative, den, is now what we use for plural. 

It feels like you've gone to a dinner party, learned who everyone is, and then everyone decides to switch names just to mess with you. Arrrgh!

It helps if you start listening to German conversations and reading German stories. It's one of those things where the more you see it, the more it will start to make sense. But also just expect it to take some time to sink in, and don't beat yourself up if you don't "get" it straight away.

Unfortunately, it's not really possible to just put German "cases" on the too hard pile and ignore them. If you do, you run the real risk of saying some odd things, like:

  • "The tomato soup ate the man", or...
  • "Can you help the train find my friend?"

It's worth taking the time to knuckle down and memorize the tables. Make yourself some flash cards. You'll get there!

Dative part 2: Dative prepositions

The dative case isn't just used for indirect objects (or the things passively receiving something, or just hanging out lazily in a sentence).

There are other places it pops up in the German language.

Just like we saw when we talked about the accusative case, there are some connecting words (prepositions) that always indicate that the dative needs to be used for the next thing in the sentence.

When you see any of these words, it means that it doesn't matter whether the next noun is a direct object, indirect object, or subject. It doesn't even matter. If it's following one of these words, it always needs to use the dative case.

Dative prepositions

Play
aus
(from / out)

Play
Ich komme aus der Schweiz.
I come from Switzerland.

(Switzerland is feminine — die Schweiz changes to der Schweiz.)
Play
außer
(except for)

Play
Alle sprechen Deutsch außer dem Mann.
Everyone speaks German except for the man.

(Man is masculine — der Mann changes to dem Mann.)
Play
bei
(with / by)

Common contraction: bei + dem = beim
Play
Er wohnt bei der Frau.
He lives with the woman.

(Woman is feminine — die Frau changes to der Frau.)
Play
mit
(with)
Play
Ich spreche mit der Frau.
I am talking with the woman.

(Again— die Frau changes to der Frau.)
Play
nach
(after / to)
Play
Nach dem Konzert, gehen wir.
After the concert, we are going.
Play
Ich gehe nach dem Konzert.
I'm going to the concert.

(Concert is neutral — das Konzert becomes dem Konzert.)


Play
seit
(since / for)
Play
Wir kennen uns schon seit der Konferenz.
We've known each other since the conference.

(Conference is feminine — die Konferenz becomes der Konferenz.)
Play
von
(by / from)

Common contraction:
von + dem = vom
Play
Ich kann Opa von der Arbeit abholen.
I can pick up Grandpa from work.

(Work is feminine — die Arbeit becomes der Arbeit.)
Play
zu
(to)

Common contraction:
zu + dem = zum
zu + der = zur
Play
Ich gehe zum Arzt.
I am going to the doctor.

(Doctor is masculine — der Arzt changes to dem Arzt. Then "zu dem Arzt" contracts to "zum Arzt".)

If you're having trouble remembering these dative prepositions, here's a video with a little ditty that will help. (Trust me!)

aus – außer – bei – mit – nach –seit – von - zu

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Free German Lessons

Lesson 1: Meet Jens — Your German language tour guide
Introductions, personal pronouns, formal vs informal address, and the important verb "to be"
Lesson 2: You already speak German! (Kind of...)
English/German similarities, cognates, false friends, and the rise of “Denglisch"
Lesson 3: Attack of the German sounds and symbols!
How to pronounce German words: How to say those Ä, Ö, Ü symbols and that weird ß thing
Lesson 4: Introduction to German nouns (and nieces)
German nouns, noun genders, plural nouns, and all the different ways to say "the"
Lesson 5: German greetings and essentials
Greetings, yes and no, please and thank you: The bare minimum you need to survive!
Lesson 6: Introduction to German verbs
The structure of regular verbs, and the important verb "to have"
Lesson 7: Commands
How to give polite and informal commands
Lesson 8: Questions
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? How much? How many? How to form basic questions in German
Lesson 9: Smalltalk! Talking about yourself in German
How to say "my name is…", where you come from, and talk about things you like
Lesson 10: How to compare things
How to compare things in German (i.e., better, best) using comparatives and superlatives
Lesson 11: Ordering in a restaurant
How to order food in a restaurant by saying "I would like..."
Lesson 12: Introduction to German cases
What "cases" are, why you need them, and how to use the nominative and accusative cases
Lesson 14: German numbers
How to count from zero to one billion in German
Lesson 13: The "lazy dative" case
What the "dative" is, when to use it, and why it's the laziest of all the cases
Lesson 15: How to sound cool
Some common slang and expressions to make your German sound more natural

German Children's Stories

Henry Hühnchen
Henry Chicken (Chicken Little)
Herr Vogel und Frau Wal
Mr Bird and Ms Whale
Die Drei Kleinen Schweinchen
The Three Little Pigs
Goldlöckchen und die Drei Bären
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Rotkäppchen
Little Red Riding Hood

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