And in longer sentences, sentence parts can start moving around in strange ways.Â. Here’s a quick refresher: 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.Â, If the noun is the subject of the sentence (it is doing the action in the sentence), then it belongs in the nominative case.Â. Maybe they do by now, or a beginner stumbles upon this, here is a clear-up of **Nominative and Accusative. In this example “Anna” is the direct object, “Paul” is the subject and “loves” is the action. The questions for the accusative are “whom” (“wen”) or “ what” (“was”). In some cases a noun doesn’t need an article at all, for example names, like Jana or Melina. 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. 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. In order to choose the correct word for "the", you need to know the gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) of the noun and the case: The nominative case is one of four cases in German. But now, let’s look at another sentence. Dative 4. Accusative 3. And when a noun is in the accusative case, the words for "the" change a teeny tiny bit from the nominative. 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. 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. And because der Mann is a masculine noun, it changes to den Mann. (Come on, we know you have a beautiful singing voice!) There are a total of four cases in German 1. Take another look at the sentence above and try to work it out. Greetings, yes and no, please and thank you: The bare minimum you need to survive! In the following examples, the pronouns change according to their function in the sentence and are indicated in bold. Take a look at this sentence. There are four cases in the German language: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. The nominative uses the articles “der”, “die”, “das” and “ein”, “eine”, “ein”. ), Take a second and see if you can come up with a memory trick to remember these accusative prepositions. For this example, we’ll use these words: Let’s start with a simple sentence that looks a lot like English. Here are some examples of the NOMINATIVE case: . 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. The "accusative case" is used when the noun is the direct object in the sentence. There are some connecting words (prepositions) which always signal that you should use the accusative case. But because das Haus is a neutral noun, it doesn't change. He is the one doing the action (petting) to the dog.This means that the man, “he,” is in nominative case. 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. Which article is used depends on the gender of the noun. 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. See how that works? In this example “Anna” is the direct object, “Paul” is the subject and “loves” is the action. 2nd noun = Kind = not doing … (Then click to check your answers.). Now that you've got that nailed, let's look at our first German 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! An example: Die Frau, die das Auto hat, ist reich The woman that has the car is rich . How to order food in a restaurant by saying "I would like...", What "cases" are, why you need them, and how to use the. The German accusative case and nominative case – Part 2. But watch out! In German, word order is much more flexible than English. 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. Learn and enjoy the German language with Jabbalab! That was another cunning one. When? Did you spot it? It has two masculine nouns (Mann, Ball) but the words for "the" are different.Â. That’s because word order really matters in English! What? 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". The girl (das Mädchen) is playing the leading part, because the girl is doing something. How to compare things in German (i.e., better, best) using comparatives and superlatives. 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. Cases don’t show up too often in English, but they are essential in German. They are found in the nominative, accusative, and dative case only. 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. Right, let’s get stuck into the heart of the German language, the cases. 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. This is why cases are so important in German. It respresents the subject of the sentence. Der Mann kauft die CD. You can use the "little words" in front of a noun to figure out who the subject and object are in a sentence. 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. Durch is another one of our accusative prepositions, which means das Haus needs to be in the accusative case. Right. They don't seem to understand the case system of German. Let’s look at some example sentences with these accusative prepositions.Â. Here are some examples of the NOMINATIVE case: Der Mann kauft die CD.