The Cases

There are four cases in German. These are nominative, accusative, genitive and dative.

N: The nominative case is used for the subject of the verb.

            E.g. Der Hund ist braun. Mein Freund hat mich angerufen. Gestern hat Claudia einen neuen Wagen gekauft.

A: The accusative case is used for the direct object of the verb. The direct object is the noun or pronoun which receives the action of the verb directly.

            E.g. Mein Freund hat mich angerufen. Gestern hat Claudia einen neuen Wagen gekauft.

    The accusative case is also used after certain prepositions. E.g Das ist ein Geschenk für meinen Vater. (See prepositions)

G: The genitive case is the one which shows ownership or possession, often indicated in English by 's or s'.

            E.g. Das Auto meines Bruders (My brother's car). Das Schlafzimmer meiner Eltern. (My parent's bedroom)

    The genitive case is also used after certain prepositions. E.g Wegen des sonnigen Wetters (Because of the sunny weather) (See prepositions)

D: The dative case is used for the indirect object of the verb. Indirect objects only occur with certain types of verb like 'give', 'show', 'buy'. The indirect object is the person or thing to whom or which the action of the verb is done.

            E.g. Ich gebe meiner Mutter ein Geschenk (I give my mother a present). Er zeigt mir sein neues Buch. (He shows me his new book)

    Again, the dative case is also used after certain prepostions. E.g. Ich fahre mit dem Bus in die Stadt. (See prepositions)

    In addition, the dative case is always used after a handful of verbs. E.g ich helfe meinem Bruder beim Rasenmahen. I help my brother with the lawn mowing.