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I wanted to know whether there are some general rules or hunches in the German mind that hints at whether an object has accusative or dative case.

For example there are some rules to determine the gender of a word, such as if it ends with -ung, it is feminine. With this rule and others, it is possible to guess the gender of a random word with a high degree of success.

I know that the case has to do with the transitivity of the verb and the objects' being direct (Akk.) or indirect (Dat.). But sometimes what feels like a direct object is used with accusative, e.g. gratulieren. Because in English you congratulate someone, not congratulate to someone.

Another is fragen (Akk.) which can was previously explained here.

These are exceptions and have to be dealt with individually. My question is: are there any rules that can help determine the case? For example allow us to reconstruct this list with %80 accuracy without prior knowledge?

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  • There actually is only one, but very simple rule: Look in the dictionary to find out. And, BTW, the list you're linking to is verbs and prepositions - That's a different story, here, in most cases, the preposition drives the case, not the verb any more..
    – tofro
    Commented Nov 2, 2018 at 21:42
  • Sorry, I changed the list to the correct one.
    – osolmaz
    Commented Nov 2, 2018 at 21:48
  • 2
    When discussing German, thinking in direct/indirect object categories will only confuse, never help you. Forget about it.
    – Janka
    Commented Nov 3, 2018 at 1:59

2 Answers 2

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If your goal is 80% accuracy in knowing the cases a verb takes, here's the trick:

  • Learn the verbs which go with the nominative case:

sein, werden, bleiben, heißen

  • Learn the verbs which go with double accusative:

abfragen, abhören, angehen, fragen, lehren, kosten, nennen, rufen, schelten, schimpfen, taufen, unterrichten

  • Learn the common verbs which go with genitive:

anklagen (Akk+Gen), sich annehmen, bedürfen, sich bedienen, sich bemächtigen, beschuldigen (Akk+Gen), sich erinnern, sich erfreuen, harren, gedenken, sich schämen, spotten, sich vergewissern

Now, you have learned three short lists. There are no more lists to learn. Only two simple rules:

  • Check if the verb has the accusative object built-in and may be described as an action of giving. Those verbs often take a dative object, which is the receiver of that built-in accusative object.

(ihm) antworten – (ihm) eine Antwort geben

(ihm) helfen – (ihm) Hilfe zukommen lassen

(ihm) glauben – (ihm) Glauben schenken

  • Check if the verb action means providing a service. Those verbs often take a dative object, which is the receiver of that service. You may see this as a special case of the above rule.

(ihm) zuhören – (ihm) Gehör schenken

(ihm) gefallen – (ihm) Gefallen schenken

(ihm) gehorchen – (ihm) Gehorsam zukommen lassen

Almost all other verbs either take no object, a lone accusative object, or first an accusative object, then a dative object, which is also some kind of receiver.

This gives you more than 80% accuracy already. If you wanted to reach almost 100%, you had to learn the common exceptions from the two rules above, which are not too numerous.

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  • 2
    +1 I like your rule, I have used it myself before. I want to add to learn the true reflexive verbs that take a reflexive pronoun in dative (short list). From Hammar's a good rule is: Verbs with certain prefixes usually take a dative: bei-, ent-, entgegen-, nach-, wider-, zu-. Examples: beistehen, beiwohnen, entsagen, entstammen, entgegengehen, nachlaufen, nachstellen, widerstehen, zulaufen, zustimmen,,,etc.
    – Abdullah
    Commented Nov 3, 2018 at 7:56
  • @User what do you mean by Hammar's?
    – osolmaz
    Commented Nov 3, 2018 at 14:05
  • @osolmaz This is my shortcut to the most famous German grammar book in English IMHO :) Hammer's German grammar and usage
    – Abdullah
    Commented Nov 3, 2018 at 14:10
  • @User: these bei-, ent-, nach, and zu- prefix rules are full of exceptions. beigeben, beilegen, beifügen, beibehalten, beibringen …, entasten, entleeren, entladen, entstellen,…, nachahmen, nachbearbeiten, nachbehandeln, nachkochen, …, zubauen, zubereiten, zustellen, zustecken … For entgegen-, wider- you are right, though there are some exceptions, too: Entgegenbringen, widerlegen ….
    – Janka
    Commented Nov 3, 2018 at 18:24
  • @Janka I like to think of adverbs of frequency in terms of percentages: always= 100%, frequently= 90%, usually 60%- 80%, often= 70%, sometimes= 50%, occasionally= 40%, seldom= rarely= 20%, never= 0%. Hammer's used usually; So, of course it's full of exceptions.
    – Abdullah
    Commented Nov 3, 2018 at 19:24
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Let me try a somewhat different approach.

Statement 1: Most German verbs take the accusative case.

a) Echte transitive Verben

Rule: When transforming the active sentence to a passive one, the Akkusativobjekt becomes the Subjekt of the passive sentence. Aus Akkusativ wird Nominativ.

Er isst den Apfel. -> Der Apfel wird von ihm gegessen.

Er trinkt einen Grog. -> Der Grog wird von ihm getrunken.

Er hat einen Tisch gekauft -> Der Tisch ist von ihm gekauft worden.

Das Regime hat den Film verboten. -> Der Film wurde vom Regime verboten.

CONCLUSION? When the pattern described above works, you can be 100% sure that your Akkusativ is correct.

b) Pseudotransitive Verben

They do take the accusative case, too, but the active sentence cannot be transformed to a passive one.

Wir behalten deinen Schlüssel (Akk.). IMPOSSIBLE: * Dein Schlüssel wird von uns behalten.

Der Autor hat einen Preis (Akk.) bekommen. IMPOSSIBLE: * Der Preis wurde vom Autor bekommen.

Der Koffer enthält zehn Hemden (Akk.). IMPOSSIBLE: * Zehn Hemden werden vom Koffer enthalten.

Wir haben Ihren Brief (Akk.) erhalten. IMPOSSIBLE: * Ihr Brief wurde von uns erhalten.

Es gibt wundervolle Menschen (Akk.) auf dieser Welt. IMPOSSIBLE: * Wundervolle Menschen werden auf dieser Welt gegeben.

Die Lampe kostet 40 Euro (Akk.). IMPOSSIBLE: * 40 Euro werden von der Lampe gekostet.

Das Gelände umfasst (= hat; misst) 200 Hektar (Akk.). IMPOSSIBLE: * 200 Hektar werden von dem Gelände umfasst.

Dein Verhalten wundert mich (Akk.) sehr. IMPOSSIBLE: * Ich werde von deinem Verhalten gewundert.

CONCLUSION? behalten, bekommen, enthalten, erhalten, es gibt, kosten, umfassen & wundern are the most frequent pseudo-transitive verbs. Adding an accusative object means 100% correctness.

Statement 2: The number of verbs that take the dative case is rather small.

Rule: When transforming the active sentence to a passive one, the Dativobjekt does NOT become the Subjekt of the passive sentence. Dativ bleibt Dativ.

Sie droht ihm mit einer Anzeige. -> Ihm wird [von ihr] mit einer Anzeige gedroht. NOT: * Er wird gedroht.

Ich glaube dir nicht. -> Dir wird [von mir] nicht geglaubt. NOT: * Du wirst nicht geglaubt.

Er hilft seinem Bruder -> Seinem Bruder wird [von ihm] geholfen. NOT: * Sein Bruder wird geholfen.

Er verzeiht seinem Vater. -> Seinem Vater wird [von ihm] verziehen. NOT. * Sein Vater wird verziehen.

ATTENTION! Some Dativ-Verben cannot undergo a passive transformation whatsoever.

Du fehlst mir. IMPOSSIBLE: * Ich werde von dir gefehlt. or: * Mir wird von dir gefehlt.

Dieses Bild gefällt ihr. IMPOSSIBLE: * Sie wird von diesem Bild gefallen. or: * Ihr wird von diesem Bild gefallen.

Das nützt ihm nichts. IMPOSSIBLE: * Er wird nichts genützt. or: * Ihm wird nichts genützt.

Der Pullover steht dir gut. IMPOSSIBLE: * Du wirst von dem Pullover gut gestanden. or: * Dir wird von dem Pullover gut gestanden.

Die Hose passt mir nicht. IMPOSSIBLE: * Ich werde von der Hose nicht gepasst. or: * Mir wird von der Hose nicht gepasst.

CONCLUSION? When you can remember the verbs in the Liste der wichtigsten Verben mit Dativ-Ergänzung, you can be 100% sure that your Dativ is correct. The list is here: https://mein-deutschbuch.de/dativ-ergaenzung.html

So what do you say? 100% instead of 80% only, that's quite something, isn't it? Or maybe I should say 97%, in order to keep out of harm's way.

A final hint. Never, never ever learn isolated verbs. Learn them with their structure(s). Thus: jdm. etw. (A.) geben; etw. (A.) bei jdm. hinterlegen; jdn. von etw. (D.) überzeugen, jdn. vor etw. (D.) warnen et cetera

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  • This is (though it is a good answer) just a complicated way of saying "if in doubt, look it up" ;)
    – tofro
    Commented Nov 4, 2018 at 11:45
  • This approach totally depends on the native speaker instinct. The passive constructions depend on the active ones. I can make a similar approach with a 100% accuracy to know the gender of a noun. Suppose you don't know the gender of the word Schule and thus you don't know which definite article to use in nominative der, die, or das. You can try to put the demonstratives in the nominative case before the noun: if dieser works, Schule is masculine; if diese works, Schule is feminine; and if dieses works, Schule is neuter. I don't think this would work for non-natives.
    – Abdullah
    Commented Nov 4, 2018 at 15:17

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