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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

Introduction to German "cases"

What "cases" are and why you need them: Meet the "nominative" and "accusative" cases

A man finding a ball in a bush

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

  • What German "cases" are and why they're important
  • What the nominative case is, and how to use it
  • What the accusative case is, and how to use that too!
  • Accusative prepositions — i.e., situations when you must use the accusative case

We are going to take a brief break from the Jens and Julia love affair to talk about a very important part of the German language. We’ll catch up with the lovebirds later.

What is a "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. 

A “case” just means you somehow mark or change a noun to show what it’s doing in a sentence. Cases don’t show up too often in English, but they are essential in German.

In English, we use word order to show who is doing what to whom.

The president gave the dog to the boy

If we change the order of the words, we get a completely different meaning. That’s because word order really matters in English!

The boy gave the dog to the president
The dog gave the president to the boy

But watch out! In German, word order is much more flexible than English. And in longer sentences, sentence parts can start moving around in strange ways. 

For example, verbs might jump to the end of the German sentence, or you might see three nouns sitting right next to each other in the middle of a German sentence.

This is why cases are so important in German. You can use the "little words" in front of a noun to figure out who the subject and object are in a sentence. In other words, who is doing what to whom in a sentence.

Let’s look at an example. For this example, we’ll use these words:

A bird and a dog looking at each other
Play
der Vogel
the bird
Play
der Hund
the dog
Play
hassen
to hate

Let’s start with a simple sentence that looks a lot like English. In this one, it’s pretty easy to figure out which animal hates the other because of the word order.

The bird is sitting on the dog's head, looking angry
Play
Der Vogel hasst den Hund.
The bird hates the dog.

No sweat, right? 

But now, let’s look at another sentence. In this one, the verb (hasst) has moved to the very end of the sentence, and we have two nouns (der Vogel and den Hund) hanging out next to one another.

Play
Ich glaube, dass der Vogel den Hund hasst.
Literally: I think, that the bird the dog hates.

You might wonder, “Wait, what’s going on? Does the dog hate the bird? Or the bird hates the dog? (And why can't they just get along?)”

But a German speaker has no trouble figuring out that little riddle, because the "little words" (der and den) are revealing everything, through (dun dun dunnnn!) the power of cases!

We'll walk you through this in baby steps. First, we need to understand the different parts of a sentence.

Parts of a sentence

To understand German cases, you have to understand the different parts of a sentence. Here are three really important parts. (There are other parts, but these three are the focus of this lesson.)

  • 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"?)

Here are some example sentences, and how to break them down into subject / verb / direct object.

  • 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)
  • Jens writes poetry at night.
Subject
(Who/what does the action?)
Jens
Verb
(The action)
writes
Direct object
(What is being "verbed"?)
poetry
(the poetry is being written)
  • Jens’s bike lost a tire.
Subject
(Who/what does the action?)
bike
Verb
(The action)
lost
Direct object
(What is being "verbed"?)
a tire
(the tire was lost)

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. (Then click to check your answers.)

The woman wrote a letter
Click for the answer
Subject: the woman
Direct object: a letter
I always call my mother
Click for the answer
Subject: I
Direct object: my mother
Yesterday, the boys found a ball
Click for the answer
Subject: the boys
Direct object: a ball
Oma yelled at Jens
Click for the answer
Subject: Oma
Direct object: Jens

Ok! Now that you've got that nailed, let's look at our first German case.

Subject of the sentence: The "nominative" case

Right. Remember how every noun in German has a gender? In a previous lesson, you learned that the word “the” is different for each gender. Here’s a quick refresher:

Masculine
Play
der
Play
der Mann (the man)
Play
der Ball (the ball)
Neutral
Play
das
Play
das Buch (the book)
Play
das Auto (the car)
Feminine
Play
die
Play
die Uhr (the clock)
Play
die Frau (the woman)
Plural
Play
die
Play
die Blumen (the flowers)

It turns out that those little words (der/die/das) change depending on whether the noun is the subject of the sentence or the direct object. 

If the noun is the subject of the sentence (it is doing the action in the sentence), then it belongs in the nominative case. 

Luckily you already know each word for “the” when the noun is in the nominative case.

Nominative / subject / "doer" of the sentence

Nominative
(Subject of the sentence)
masculine
der
neutral
das
feminine
die
plural
die

Let's see it in action.

Masculine
Play
Der Mann fährt das Auto.
The man drives the car.
Neutral
Play
Das Auto ist schnell.
The car is fast.
Feminine
Play
Die Frau ist klein.
The woman is short.
Plural
Play
Die Männer sind alt.
The men are old.

See? You didn’t even have to learn anything for the nominative case because you already knew this.

Accusative / direct object / "done-er" of the sentence

The "accusative case" is used when the noun is the direct object in the sentence. In other words, when it's the thing being affected (or "verbed") in the sentence.

And when a noun is in the accusative case, the words for "the" change a teeny tiny bit from the nominative. See if you can spot the difference.

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

Did you spot it? Yup, if the noun happens to be masculine,  then when it is the direct object in the sentence, it changes to "den" instead of "der". All other genders stay the same.

Take a look at this sentence. It has two masculine nouns (Mann, Ball) but the words for "the" are different. 

Play
Der Mann findet den Ball.
The man finds the ball.

See how that works? It's because der Mann is the subject/nominative, while den Ball is the direct object/accusative.

But this only happens with masculine nouns. Take a look at this second example that uses two feminine nouns (Frau, Blume):

Play
Die Frau findet die Blume.
The woman finds the flower.

See how they're both the same? For everything other than the masculine words, the word for "the" is exactly the same for the subject/nominative as it is for the direct object/accusative.

Other times you'll use the accusative

Up until now we've been using the accusative for things that are the direct object in a sentence: Or the thing being "verbed".

But there's another time you'll use the accusative case. There are some connecting words (prepositions) which always signal that you should use the accusative case.

That means, if you see any of these bad boys in a sentence, the noun after the word should be in the accusative case!

Accusative prepositions

Play
bis
until
Play
durch
through
Play
für
for
Play
gegen
against
Play
wieder
against (contrary to)
Play
ohne
without
Play
entlang
along
Play
um
around

Let’s look at some example sentences with these accusative prepositions. 

Play
Die Frau pflückt zwei Blumen für den Mann.
The woman picked two flowers for the man.

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. And because der Mann is a masculine noun, it changes to den Mann.

Play
Ich gehe um den Park.
I go around the park.

Um is another one of our accusative prepositions, which means der Park needs to be in the accusative case. And because der Park is a masculine noun, it changes to den Park.

Play
Ich gehe durch das Haus.
I go through the house.

That was a slightly tricky one. Durch is another one of our accusative prepositions, which means das Haus needs to be in the accusative case. But because das Haus is a neutral noun, it doesn't change.

Play
Wir singen ohne die Männer.
We are singing without the men.

That was another cunning one. Ohne is an accusative preposition, meaning that "the men" (die Männer)  needs to be in the accusative case. But because die Männer is plural, it doesn't change, even in the accusative case. (Despite the fact that it's a bunch of very masculine men, hah! Keep your eye on the ball!)

Take a second and see if you can come up with a memory trick to remember these accusative prepositions. Some people turn them into a little song. (Come on, we know you have a beautiful singing voice!) Other people like to put them in a certain order that seems to “flow.”

Whatever works for you. But it’s definitely worth the time to memorize this list:

durch — für — gegen — ohne — um — bis — entlang — wieder

The puzzling case of the dog and the bird

Remember at the start of this lesson when you met a dog and a bird who just couldn't see eye to eye? We gave you a confusing sentence where it was hard to know whether the bird hates the dog, or the dog hates the bird.

Ich glaube, dass der Vogel den Hund hasst.
Literally: I think, that the bird the dog hates.

Using what you've learned in this lesson, can you tell who is doing the hating, and who is being hated? Take another look at the sentence above and try to work it out. Then check your answer below.

Think you've figured it out?
Click here for the answer!

The bird and the dog looking at each other
Correct translation: "I think that the bird hates the dog."
The bird jumping on the dog's head, looking angry

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. It's in the accusative case, which means the dog is the direct object in the sentence (or the thing being hated).

So for some reason unknown to humans, the bird hates the dog.

Mystery solved, thanks to cases!

Previous lesson
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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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