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I'm a native Spanish speaker learning German through English. Usually I study the grammar, do some exercises and then try to reason the "why" in German. Now, learning the German cases and definite article declinations one of the sentences I formed is:

"Das ist das Objekt dem Satz" ("das Object" would be the direct object [Accusative] and "des Satz" the indirect object (?) [Dative]).

Which translates to: "This is the object of the sentence"

is "dem Satz" in this sentence Genitive or Dative? I'm struggling a bit recognizing the cases :)

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Das ist das Objekt dem Satz.

Das ist das Objekt des Satzes.

You are wrong about das Objekt being an accusative object. It's a Prädikativ, a "nominative object". These odd things always appear when the copula sein is used, and also with some other verbs. It's the same in English (though not visible there) and also in Spanish, I think.

The piece des Satzes is a genitive attribute to das Objekt. It's not at object on its own. There are only a few verbs which take a genitive object, e.g. bedürfen.

Forget about direct and indirect objects in German. This won't help you at all, as the first object of a verb may come in any case, depending on the verb, and the second may also be an accusative object for some verbs. You have to learn these by each verb.

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  • I think in English the difference between object and predicative doesn't exist, because nouns are not inflected (except for number), and in the case of pronouns the objective form is used with to be: One says That's me, not that's I.
    – RHa
    Jul 21, 2018 at 13:22
  • I agree with @RHa but would like to add that it is complicated.
    – Carsten S
    Jul 21, 2018 at 15:44

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