Questions tagged [grammatical-case]
grammatikalischer Fall – Questions relating to the grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive)
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Should one necessarily learn, when a verb goes with a dative object and when with accusative one?
Should one necessarily learn, when a verb goes with a dative object and when with an accusative one, or can it be deduced?
How to determine if a verb in question induces *accusative or dative? If ...
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Nominative or Accusative case "Sie ist meine Mutter"
In the phrase:
Sie ist meine Mutter.
'meine Mutter' is the nominative case although I don't understand why this is so since I naturally think that it should be the accusative case as it receives the ...
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"Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod": is German really losing Genitiv? (evolutionary viewpoint)
Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod is an interesting German phrase which originates this question. I’m interested in knowing how true is it/will it be.
Has German always had four cases? Or were some ...
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Welchen Fall benutzt man mit Phrasen wie "last year"?
Zum Beispiel im englischen Satz "Last year I visited Germany.", welchen Fall benutzt man?
Letztes Jahr habe ich Deutschland besucht.
Letztem Jahr habe ich Deutschland besucht.
Ich glaube ...
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Why is "den" used in "am Montag, den 10. August''?
This question also has an answer here (in German):
Am Samstag, dem/den
It's more logical to me to be "am Montag, dem 10. August" since without specifying Monday, I would say "am 10. August" ...
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Accusative vs Dative: "Schau in der/die Schublade!"
What is correct? Q: "Wo sind meine Socken?"
A: "Schau in der Schublade" vs "Schau in die Schublade"
As a Swiss German speaker not very adept at proper German grammar I feel that both are somehow ...
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Accusative or dative for verbs of movement
My doubt is with respect to this sentence (in perfect)
Er ist zum Büro gegangen.
My teacher taught me that we have to use the verb sein as helping verb whenever there is a movement. However, why ...
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Why Akkusativ in "dieses Jahr", "diesen Sommer"?
"Dieses Jahr", "diese Woche", "diesen Sommer" are all answers to the question "When?".
According to the rules one should use dative to answer (for example "diesER Woche"), however accusative is used. ...
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Why do some German dictionaries list the genitive case ending?
I recently read that some German dictionaries list the genitive case ending for an entry but no explanation was given as to why some publishers choose to do this. Anyone happen to know?
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Why it is “Eines Tages” and not simply “ein Tag”?
In a story I read recently, there was a sentence:
Eines Tages fand Peter eine Schatzkarte!
And I wonder why it is eines Tages and not ein Tag, because ein Tag is what I would say normally. Is ...
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Why is 'Guten Tag' accusative?
Is it just an idiom, or is it a general rule?
I'm wishing a good day to someone, so I guess there is some kind of metaphorical motion involved. Would it be similar if I wanted to say "vielen Spaß"?
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Why isn't "Ich danke dir" "Ich danke dich?"
I believe that in the sentence
Ich danke 'du/dir/dich'
that:
ich = subject
danke = verb
du = direct object.
Wouldn't that mean that it would be "Ich danke dich"? I hear people say "Ich ...
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Numbering cases
Sometimes I see a case referred to by number instead of by name. Now that's fine if there's an official, definite order. But while I see in tables mostly the order
Nominativ
Akkusativ
...
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Temporal complement and its correct case
I'm confused about the correct case to use in a temporal complement: do you need the accusative?
I'm asking about the expression of a well determined time (that does not continue).
Examples may be:
...
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How to differentiate Sie (they) or Sie (you)?
Sie haben meine Brieftasche.
This sentence has 2 different meanings -
They have my wallet.
or
You have my wallet.
How can I know which is intended?
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Hat dir der Film gefallen? oder Hat du der Film gefallen? [duplicate]
Hat dir der Film gefallen?
oder
Hat du der Film gefallen?
I know first one is true but I do not understand why? Can anyone explain?
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Ist "wegen dir" falsch und nur "deinetwegen" richtig?
Ich habe Widersprüchliches darüber gelesen, ob die Verwendung der Präposition wegen + Pronomen im Dativ richtig oder falsch ist.
wegen mir, wegen dir, wegen ihm, wegen ihr usw.
Viele Leute ...
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A list of verbs that take only dative objects
It appears that there must be dozens of verbs in German that take dative objects but never take accusative objects. "Helfen" and "folgen" are frequently seen examples. I just came across "nachgehen". ...
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Ist "was für" Nominativ oder Akkusativ?
I was wondering whether the sentence using "was für" would be Nominativ or Akkusativ
for example:
Was für ein warmer Winter!
Was für einen warmen Winter!
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»Karlsruhe, den 29. Juli 2012« – warum »den«?
Wenn man in einem Schriftstück den Ort und das Datum schreibt, dann kenne ich das so:
[Ort], den [Datum]
also z.B.:
Karlsruhe, den 29. Juli 2012
Warum schreibt man den? Warum nicht der wie in ...
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Welcher Fall wird nach „wie (z. B.)“ verwendet?
Verlangt wie (im Sinne von zum Beispiel) einen speziellen Fall, oder wird der gleiche Fall wie beim vorangegangenen Objekt verwendet?
Was ist z. B. korrekt:
Bedingt durch Faktoren wie [der/...
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»Von jemand anderen« oder »von jemand anderem«?
Auf Facebook bin ich gerade auf eine Frage gestoßen, die ich nicht eindeutig beantworten konnte. Sie lautet:
Was ist richtig?
»anderer« nach »von jemand« im Dativ:
Das ist die Sache ...
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"ein paar" or "einem paar" in dative
When using a preposition that requires the usage of dative, does the dative also apply to "ein paar" in this case.
So is it
Ich werde mit ein paar Kindern wohnen.
or
Ich werde mit einem paar ...
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Welchen Fall verwendet man mit Präposition "ohne"?
Ich habe bemerkt, dass man bei uns zwar ohne dich (seltener und vermutlich falsch auch ohne dir) sagt, allerdings wird es mit Nomen anscheinend in Dativ formuliert, also z. B. ohne der Sache. Gibt es ...
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Usage concerning "mir/mich"
I saw a sentence in a German textbook:
Aber wenn ich Geburtstag habe, dann darf ich mir ein Essen aussuchen.
I would like to ask why we should use "mir" here? I saw it somewhere else a sentence
...
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Die Frage „Wem oder wen?“. Auf welche Weise hilft sie mir?
Als ich mit dem Deutschlernen angefangen habe, ist ein typisches Gespräch zwischen mir und meiner Deutschlehrerin ungefähr wie folgt gelaufen:
Ich: „Der Ball gehört mich.“
Lehrerin: „Hoppla, nicht so ...
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Was soll ich nach "in" benutzen: Dativ oder Akkusativ?
Ich weiß nicht welchen Fall ich benutzen soll. Manchmal sehe ich es mit Dativ
Ich bin in der Küche.
aber manchmal ich sehe es auch mit Akkusativ. Kann mir das bitte jemand erklären?
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How to determine the case of a dual prepositions apart from movement
I know that when a preposition can take both accusative and dative cases and there is movement, we will ask wo/wohin to determine the case. I also know that you will use accusative when you can ask ...
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Why is the accusative used in “Einen Augenblick!”?
When someone says “Einen Augenblick!”, like the English “Just a moment!”, why is the accusative used and not the nominative case?
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Can you say "Ich wurde (etwas) gegeben"?
I wrote a quick email to my doctor yesterday and hastily wrote the sentence below.
"Nach der Untersuchung wurde ich eine CD mit den Befunden gegeben"
Then I was wondering, When you use ...
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Why is "Tisch" in "Der Apfel liegt auf dem Tisch" in dative instead of accusative case? [duplicate]
Der Apfel liegt auf dem Tisch.
Can someone explain me why Tisch is in dative case and not in akkusative?
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Woher kommt der Dativ in »Wie dem auch sei«?
Ich verstehe nicht, was der Dativ in diesen bekannten Konstrukten zu suchen hat:
Wie dem auch sei, …
Dem ist nicht so.
Folgende Alternativen ergäben für mich Sinn:
Wie es auch sein mag, …
Dies ist ...
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Accusative vs. nominative case ambiguity?
First, let me say that I'm new to German.
I see that the article of a feminine noun isn't inflected when the case is changed from nominative to accusative, i.e. in both cases the definite article is ...
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When would one use "im" and "am" rather than "in dem" and "an dem?
I'm new to German and I get a bit confused about when it's "dem" or "im" or "den" rather than "in der" or "in dem" and so on.
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Recommended ways to learn the cases?
My German tutor recently told me that the only real way to learn the cases – accusative/dative/nominative/genitive – is just to memorize which verbs are which. She suggests memorizing the dative and ...
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Accusative after "sein"
I’m lost with the verb sein. I read on multiple websites and according to what I have learned, sein is always followed by nominative.
Examples:
Er ist der Mann.
Er ist ein großer Mann.
not
...
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How to know Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive Verbs in German?
I am learning German, perhaps I am A1 level but I really wish to raise my level to B1 and as far as my experience goes, the verbs are quite important to know and for not only verb but for grammatical ...
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General rule/s for finding out whether an object is accusative or dative
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 ...
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Repetitive use of genitive (Genitivkette)
How many times one can use genitive to refer to an object? German sentences like:
Das Fenster des Hauses der Mutter meiner Freundin u.s.w.
are, in my opinion, strange and stylistically ...
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Why is the adjective ending of the accusative case used in this sentence after »als«?
The below sentence appears in the article “Treffen von Trump und Merkel. Muss halt.” from Der Spiegel:
Trump lobt Deutschland länglich als wichtigen Partner im Kampf gegen den Terror und erinnert ...
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What case is being used in a sentence like "Kaltes Bier!" or "Guten Morgen!"?
I know the ending is the same in both nominative and accusative for feminine, neuter and plural, but I'd like to know which case I'm using because the ending changes in the masculine. For example:
If ...
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Genitiv der literarischen Werke
Wenn man den Genitiv eines literarischen Werks benutzen möchte, soll man z.B. "der Autor des Zauberbergs" oder "der Autor des Zauberberg" schreiben ?
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Can the noun ‘Name’ be without ‘-n’ ending in the dative case?
According to Duden, the singular dative of Name is Namen. However, in the below paragraph from the Süddeutsche Zeitung article "Frauen mit Kopftuch müssen viermal so viele Bewerbungen schreiben", it's ...
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Aufzählung: Numerus und Kasus
Es geht um folgenden Satz:
Was ich habe, ist Mut, Entschlossenheit und der Drang, nicht auf die Nase zu fallen.
Die "ist"-oder-"sind"-Frage.
Ich habe mich des folgenden Threads bedient: Singular/...
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How to say “one’s” or “someone’s” in German?
For example:
It’s a necessary stage in one’s development.
Should it be:
Es ist eine notwendige Stufe jemander Entwicklung?
Or
Es ist eine notwendige Stufe jemandes Entwicklung?
I thought it ...
user18778
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4
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Difference between "accusative" and "direct object"
I always thought accusative case is used for the direct objects of a verb, until a few minutes ago when I found in German grammar in a nutshell, that
Can you please explain the subtle difference ...
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When to use dative or accusative object with "sitzen"?
I'm starting to learn German and I'm confused with usage of those two.
Should I use accusative or dative in the following?
In dem Kino sitzen Bürger. – dative
or
In das Kino sitzen Bürger. – ...
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4
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Why `Dem Computer` and not `Der Computer`?
Dem Computer fehlt ein Hub für USB.
Why Dem Computer and not Der Computer? Because I think Dem Computer is subject, so it should takes the nominative der article.
Source:
https://www.linguee.com/...
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4
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Possessive pronoun in subject vs. predicate
In our first lesson we learned sentences like
Das ist mein Koffer.
Now we're learning about the accusative, and the teacher told us that for both all cases the suffix of the possessive pronoun ...
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1
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Dativ der Fragepronomina wer und was - wem und … *wam*?
Eine kaiserliche Randnotiz zu einem Telegramm des Reichskanzlers lautet wie folgt:
Woher ist das zu entnehmen? Aus dem mir vorgelegten Material nicht.
Dies versteht man natürlich problemlos, aber ...
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