CASES (Kasus)

Sorry, you can’t avoid them in German.

So, let’s try to understand them one last time.

What is a case?

• A case is how a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun is used in a sentence.

• Which of the following are not nouns or pronouns?

fingernail, paper, you, us, swam, yesterday, snow, how, swimsuit, him

Hopefully you chose “swam”, “yesterday”, & “how”.

There are 4 cases in German:

Nominative, Accusative, Dative, and Genitive

Nominative: the subject of the sentence ( it DOES the verb)

Accusative: the direct object or object of an Acc. preposition

Dative: the indirect object (“to”/ “for”) or an object of a Dat. preposition

…and the last case?• Genitive

Genitive case is used to show possession.—”of”

Examples: my sister’s boyfriend: Der Freund meiner Schwester.

the parrot’s food: Das Futter des Papageis

Notice the color coding correspondence.

Genitive is sometimes used with these prepositions:

• trotz: “despite”; “in spite of”

• statt/ anstatt: “instead of”

• während: “during”

What happens to the articles in each case?

der die das die

den die das die

dem der dem den

des der des der

Nom

Acc

Dat

Gen

Masc. Fem. Neuter Plural

These are endings found on “the” and other “determiners” (like “each”, “which”, “this/that/these/those”.)

…and what happens with other articles?

------ -e ----- -e

-en

-e ----- -e

-em -er -em -en

-es -er -es -er

These endings go on “ein-” (a, an one), “kein-” (not any), and possessive articles (like my, your, his…)

Masc. Fem. Neut. Plur.

Nom

Acc

Dat

Gen

If you compare the last two charts, which boxes have different endings?

Yes, only those three. Otherwise, the two charts are the same.

How good is your memory?

1. What is a case in German?

2. What is affected by a case?

3. What are the four cases?

4. What is the purpose of each?

5. How does knowing the case affect how you write and say the words?

What if you wanted to use pronouns instead of noun phrases?

Original: My neighbor gave my brothers Steeler tickets.New: She gave them to them.

The pronouns must reflect the case and gender of the intended nouns.

So, if “My neighbor” is nominative feminine, the replacement “she” must also be nominative feminine.

And if “my brothers” are dative plural, the replacement “to them” must also be dative plural.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS

NOM ACC DAT

ichduersiees

wirihrsieSie

Iyou (fam.)he, itshe, itit

weyou (fam. pl)theyyou (form)

michdichihnsiees

unseuchsieSie

meyouhim, itshe, itit

usyou allthemyou

mirdirihmihrihm

unseuchihnenIhnen

to/for meto/for youto/for him, itto /for her, itto it

to usto youto themto you

1. Pick a noun phrase in this sentence :

Seine Geschwister kaufen der Mutti einen neuen Laptop.

You could have chosen:“Seine Geschwister” “der Mutti”or “einen neuen Laptop”

2. Based on it’s gender and case, replace it with a pronoun and rewrite the sentence.

Your new sentence would be one of the following:

Sie kaufen der Mutti einen neuen Laptop.Seine Geschwister kaufen ihr einen neuen Laptop.Seine Geschwister kaufen ihn der Mutti.