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German Dative Case: A Comprehensive Guide
By Veronika Jel / German Grammar / June 23, 2022
Mastering the German dative case is no easy task. It’s not a question of just
memorizing a couple of tables – there is so much more to dative. To truly
understand how and when to use the case, you’ll need to learn about
articles, verbs, prepositions, indirect objects, word order, and more.
While that may sound daunting, don’t panic just yet! Learning the German
dative case might not be the easiest thing you’ll ever do, but it’s certainly
not impossible. All you need is the right strategy and enough patience.
In this post, we’ll go over all the things you need to get started on your
journey to master the dative.
1. Nominative (Nominativ)
2. Genitive (Genitiv)
3. Dative (Dativ)
4. Accusative (Akkusativ)
As you can see, the dative is the third German case. It’s also known as
Wem-Fall (meaning whom-case). This is because, in German, you use the
dative when you ask/answer questions beginning with Wem/Was? – for
example:
Wem gehört das Fahrrad? – To whom does this bike belong? (Whose
bike is this?)
o Das Fahrrad gehört mir. – The bike belongs to me.
Wem hilfst du? – Whom are you helping?
o Ich helfe dir. – I’m helping you.
If you’d like to learn more about what cases are and why you need them,
check out our complete guide to German cases.
Before we jump into how to use dative and what the different forms of
dative look like, it’s important you understand when to use the dative.
There are a couple of different circumstances that require the dative. These
are:
Indirect object
The most common use of the German dative case is when you’re referring
to an indirect object in a sentence. An indirect object is usually the noun or
phrase that receives the direct object. For example:
Prepositions
There are a couple of prepositions that always take the dative. These are
some of the most common ones:
Unfortunately, not all prepositions take just one case. There are a handful of
prepositions that can be paired with either dative or accusative, depending
on the context. These are:
an – on
auf – on
hinter – behind
in – in
neben – beside
über – over, above, about
unter – under
vor – in front of, before
zwischen – between, amongst
Often, these prepositions refer to a location/direction. When deciding
whether to use dative or accusative, remember this simple rule:
Verbs
Certain verbs always take the German dative case. Whenever you spot one
of these verbs, you can stop thinking about indirect/direct objects and all
the complex rules we’ve been over. These verbs always take a direct dative
object, no matter what.
Certain phrases
There are also some phrases in German that always use dative. Much like
with most German grammar rules and exceptions, you will have to
memorize these.
The same goes for other descriptive words, such as: warm (warm), schlecht
(bad), gut (good), and so on.
Ich wasche mir die Hände. (I am washing my hands.)
When you want to say that you’re having a wash in German, you might say,
‘Ich wasche mich.’ – in this case, you will have to use the accusative (mich,
not mir – more on that later).
However, when you’re talking about washing a specific part of your body,
such as your hands, you will have to adjust the original sentence.
In German, we don’t say, ‘I’m washing my hands.’ Rather, you will say, ‘I’m
washing the hands to me/myself.’ This doesn’t make a lot of sense in
English, but it’s the only correct way to say this phrase in German.
Ich ziehe mir die Schuhe aus. (I’m taking off my shoes.)
This is similar to the hand-washing phrase. When talking about (un)dressing
yourself in German, you will have to say, ‘I’m taking off the shoes to
me/myself.’
Now that we’ve covered when you use the dative, let’s take a look at how
you form the German dative case. First, let’s start with articles.
Much like English, German has both definite and indefinite articles. These
change form depending on which case they are in.
Notice also that possessives take the same form as indefinite articles.
DEFINITE ARTICLES
As you can see, the articles in dative are quite different from their
nominative form. See the difference here:
Nominative: Ich bin ein Mädchen. (I am a girl.)
Dative: Ich helfe einer Mädchen. (I am helping a girl.)
Other example sentences in dative:
Other than possessive determiners and articles, there are a couple of other
“little words” that can often come in front of German nouns. These can
often take different endings/forms than articles. If you want to speak
German correctly, you will have to remember these.
Dieser
Dieser is the German equivalent of the English this. These are the endings
that dieser takes:
DIESER
As I said, many other determiners take different endings than your regular
German articles. Usually, they follow the same pattern as dieser.
Here are some of the other determiners that take the same endings as
dieser:
alle (all)
beide (both)
einige (some)
jeder (each, every)
jener (that)
mancher (some, many)
mehrere (several)
solcher (such)
viele (much, many)
welcher (which)
wenige (few)
Example sentences in the German dative case:
Much like nouns change their articles in different cases, personal pronouns,
too, change their forms. You might have previously encountered words like
mir or dich – these are just your regular personal pronouns such as ich or
du in cases other than nominative.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS
nominative dative
I ich mir
he er ihm
it es ihm
we wir uns
you (plural) ihr euch
Last, but not least, we have to take a look at German adjectives. If you’ve
been learning German for some time now, chances are you’ve heard people
complain about German adjective endings.
Like nouns, articles, and other determiners, adjectives, too, have different
forms depending on context. The ending an adjective takes depends on the
case, as well as on whether the adjective is preceded by an indefinite,
definite, or no article.
Nominativ der gute Hund die gute das gute die guten
e
Katze Kind Kinder
Learn more
You’ve done it! These are all the basics you need to know about the
German dative case. While you’re at it, why not check out some of our
other grammar articles?