53 votes
Accepted

In German, can I have a sentence with multiple cases?

You seem to have had a misunderstanding about what case is. Case is not an attribute of a sentence, but the attribute of a noun phrase, which is a part of a sentence. This is the analysis of your ...
Jonathan Scholbach's user avatar
38 votes
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Accusative vs Dative: "Schau in der/die Schublade!"

The confusion here comes from omitting a small word: Schau in der Schublade nach. Hence, in this example, the verb is nachschauen, in the other example it is schauen. These differ a bit in ...
RoyPJ's user avatar
  • 2,236
25 votes
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Why does "fragen" take two accusatives?

Most sentence plans follow a few general rules. If there are multiple actants involved, typically the actant with the most active role is in the nominative case (subject), the actant with the least ...
johnl's user avatar
  • 7,708
21 votes

Why is the size written in accusative?

This so-called accusative of measure (Akkusativ des Maßes) stands with certain adjectives such as groß, breit, hoch, weit, schwer. Some examples: Sie dachte einen Augenblick lang nach. Einen Tag ...
David Vogt's user avatar
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17 votes
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Nominativ or Akkusativ

'like' functions as a preposition in this English sentence, and while (all?) prepositions in German decline the noun they're acting on, the word 'wie' is not a preposition. Rather, it is a conjunction;...
Glorfindel's user avatar
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16 votes
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Is "Guten Morgen" in the accusative? Are all greetings so?

You are correct. "Guten Morgen" is short for "Ich wünsche dir/Ihnen einen guten Morgen". Likewise, "Guten Tag" is short for "Ich wünsche dir/Ihnen einen guten Tag". Same with "Guten Abend". As you ...
RHa's user avatar
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15 votes
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Präposition "an": Dativ oder Akkusativ?

Nein. Die Präposition an steht je nach Verwendung entweder mit Dativ oder mit Akkusativ. Als Grundregel gilt bei solchen "Wechselpräpositionen": Antwortet die Phrase auf die Frage "wo?" (Ortsangabe - ...
tohuwawohu's user avatar
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15 votes
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"Keinen Scanner gefunden" vs. "Kein Scanner gefunden"

Beides ist richtig. Kein Scanner gefunden. ist die Kurzform von Es wurde kein Scanner gefunden. Dagegen ist Keinen Scanner gefunden. die Kurzform von so etwas wie Ich habe/Das System ...
O. R. Mapper's user avatar
  • 8,671
15 votes

Why does "fragen" take two accusatives?

There is no such thing as direct and indirect object in German. That's a concept from French which got shipped across The Channel. German instead has accusative, dative, genitive, and prepositional ...
Janka's user avatar
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15 votes
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Warum ist es "du kannst dir nicht vorstellen" und nicht "du kannst dich nicht vorstellen"?

Those are two very different meanings of the verb vorstellen. sich[reflexive, dat] etwas[acc] vorstellen - to imagine/picture something; This use always requires both a dative reflexive pronoun and ...
GrottenOlm's user avatar
15 votes
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Why do these sentences have different case despite being otherwise identical?

German has four cases (nominative, accusative, dative and genitive). Which case an object receives depends on the verb and has to be learned. We have an excellent list of verbs with a dative object. ...
David Vogt's user avatar
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14 votes
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"Leider gibt es auf keinem keinen..." Ist das richtig geschrieben?

Leider gibt es auf keinem [Exemplar] keinen Sticker. means that there is no exemplar without a sticker on it. So it is actually the opposite of what you want to express. The correct way of saying ...
fragezeichen's user avatar
  • 2,195
14 votes

„Sie traf ein großer Schock!“ Warum nicht „Sie traf einen großen Schock“?

treffen verlangt den Akkusativ, das ist richtig. Hier ist allerdings der Schock das Subjekt im Nominativ und sie ist das Akkusativobjekt. Die Satzstellung weicht hier von der Wortstellung Subjekt-...
Jonathan Scholbach's user avatar
13 votes
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Why is it “ich” and not “mich” in the sentence “Er war kleiner als ich”?

The idea that anytime there are two distinct entities, one of them must be accusative, is wrong. In general, it's the verb that determines the cases ("the verb governs the sentence"). For ...
dirkt's user avatar
  • 6,986
13 votes

What to do when two nouns are there?

‘Two nouns’ is a rather broad designator. It can happen in a number of cases: two different objects Ich bringe dem Herrn einen Kaffee one object, one noun describing the other (apposition) Ich ...
Jan's user avatar
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13 votes
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"Diesen Winter" together with the verb "sein"

"Es ist kalt/warm/sonnig/regnerisch." is a standing idiom when talking about the weather. Same as "It's very cold today." in English. This expression is combined with an accusative ...
HalvarF's user avatar
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13 votes
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Sollte man Artikel im Akkusativ auf eine Einkaufsliste schreiben?

Auch wenn ich die Idee hinter der Frage sehr charmant finde, kenne ich persönlich niemanden, der Einkaufslisten im Akkusativ schreibt. Da es sich um eine reine Liste von Gegenständen ohne grammatische ...
HalvarF's user avatar
  • 25.7k
12 votes

Why is the accusative used in “Einen Augenblick!”?

In English, “Just a moment!” implies a verb like “wait” or “give (me)”. The same is true in German, “Einen Augenblick!” is just a shorter form of “Warten Sie einen Augenblick!”, “Geben Sie mir einen ...
Philipp's user avatar
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12 votes
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Wechselpräpositionen

There are exactly nine Wechselpräpositionen, an, auf, hinter, neben, in, über, unter, vor and zwischen. These mean a different thing when used either with dative or accusative. What's right is ...
Janka's user avatar
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12 votes
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Accusative or dative?

The first one gives a description about the location of the chair. That is why we need the dative (position). "Der Stuhl steht am (an dem) Tisch". "Er setzt sich auf einen Stuhl am Tisch" This ...
infinitezero's user avatar
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12 votes

In German, can I have a sentence with multiple cases?

In addition to (or variation of) Jonathan's perfect answer, just because sometimes looking at something from different angles may help getting familiar with it: You seem to come from a language ...
Christian Geiselmann's user avatar
11 votes
Accepted

Dativ oder Akkusativ?

To start with your first example, both of the following are correct; but they mean different things. (i) Der Maler zeichnet ein Bild auf der Straße. (ii) Der Maler zeichnet ein Bild auf die Straße. ...
MarkOxford's user avatar
11 votes

"Warten Sie auf mich?"

"Auf ... warten" (meaning "to wait for ...") takes always the accusative case in German. The dative case would indicate that you stand or sit somewhere while waiting, say, "Ich warte auf der Bank (dat....
Jimi Jackson's user avatar
11 votes

Dativ oder Akkusativ für 'beibringen'?

Was im Wörterbuch steht entspricht hier den normalen Regeln der deutschen Sprache: jemandem (Dativ/Dativobjekt) etwas (Akkusative/Akkustivobjekt) beibringen. Man muss den Satz aber richtig verstehen: ...
Tsundoku's user avatar
  • 2,572
11 votes
Accepted

Frage nach dem Verb "widmen"

Weil widmen nicht unbedingt reflexiv ist. Ja, es gibt die reflexive Verwendung „sich etwas widmen“, aber das ist ein - wenngleich häufiger - Sonderfall von [etwas (im Akkusativ) = beschreibt das ...
Stephie's user avatar
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11 votes

Grenzfälle Dativ/Akkusativ

Mein Verdacht ist, dass es gar möglicherweise gar nicht um Dativ oder Akkusativ geht, sondern um starke oder schwache Flexion. Die Präposition mit verlangt ausnahmslos den Dativ. Insofern kommt hier ...
RHa's user avatar
  • 15.5k
10 votes

Dative prepositions and seit

Seit is not only a preposition. It can be one, but it doesn’t have to be. If it is a preposition, it governs dative. But if it is, then its government only extends to the first noun expression ...
Jan's user avatar
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10 votes
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Nominative or Accusative case "Sie ist meine Mutter"

The word "sein" is one of the few verbs which uses a nominative object so the sentence contains two elements in nominative case. Using a male word you can see that the nominative is used twice: Er ...
Martin Rosenau's user avatar
10 votes
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The order of dative and accusative in a sentence

You already stated the rule: The dative object precedes the accusative object (not subject), except if the accusative object is a personal pronoun. In this case the pronoun goes first. So: Ich ...
RHa's user avatar
  • 15.5k
10 votes

Why not ihm in "Kannst du ihn den neuen Kollegen zeigen?"

"Zeigen" in your example has two objects: "den Besprechungsraum" singular, accusative: what to show "den neuen Kollegen" plural, dative: whom to show it so "ihn" again is accusative singular, standing ...
Bobby J's user avatar
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