German cases are four: the nominative case (subject of the sentence); the

accusative case (the direct object); the dative case (the indirect object), and the
genitive case (possessive). Cases are not something strange to English, pronouns
for example use a certain kind of cases, for example we say he speaks, and
give him and not give he, did you see how he became him in the second
example, well the same thing happens in German, the only difference is that in
German its much more widely used, not only in pronouns, even nouns/ adjectives/
articles use the same thing. The German case indicates the role of an element in
a sentence.
German Nominative
The nominative is the easiest case in German and also the one dictionaries use as
the standard form of nouns, adjectives, articlesand refers to the subject of the
sentence. The teacher went to school, The teacher is the subject of the sentence,
and therefore The teacher is nominative.
So it will take the nominative form in German, which is Der Lehrer.
Below is a table of some forms of Nominative, you will only know the difference
when you will go through the 3 other cases (accusative, Dative, Genitive).
Definite Articles
Der, die, das, die
(they all meansthe)

Indefinite Articles
Ein, Eine, Ein
(they all mean a, an)

German Nominative Case

Personal Pronouns
Ich, du, er, sie,
wir, ihr, sie.
(I, you, he, she...)

Adjectives (masc., fem, n

Weier, weie, weies, w
(all these forms mean wh

These are just some examples to show the nominative form of some elements such
as articles, pronouns, adjectives. Note that the nominative case can be used in a
much wider scope such as in Nouns, interrogative pronounswhat comes next will
help you notice the difference between Nominative and what the other 3 German
cases.
German Accusative
Now we will learn the second case in German which is the accusative, the good
news is that apart from the masculine, the other 2 genders + the plural (feminine,
neuter and plural) look just like the Nominative. Now lets learn what the
accusative really is. The accusative case is considered the direct object. I see the
teacher, the teacher is the direct object of the sentence, and therefore would take
the accusative form, and since the teacher is masculine it will become in German
den Lehrer and not der Lehrer as in the nominative case. I see the teacher = Ich
sehe denLehrer.
German Accusative Case

Definite Articles
Den, die, das, die
(they all meansthe)

Indefinite Articles
Einen, Eine, Ein
(they all mean a, an)

Personal Pronouns
mich, dich, ihn,sie,
uns, euch, sie.
(me, you, him, her...)

Adjectives (masc., fem, n

Weien, weie, weies, w
(all these forms mean wh

Lets get adjectives involved as well. I see the young teacher = ich sehe
den jungen Lehrer. Young in German is jung, but since were using the accusative
case, then the adjective should copy the article it follows, which is den/ the =
masculine, so den jungen. If you look at the table above you will understand why
we added en after the adjective jung. Now lets get personal pronouns
involved. I see him = ich sehe ihn. Easy, isnt it!

German Dative
Now things will get serious because the dative case is very important in German,
and it also changes in all the 3 genders + the plural (masculine, feminine, neuter
and plural). But first lets learn what the Dative means. The Dative in German is
just like the indirect object in English, or in other words, its like the receiver of the
direct object. So for example: I give the book to him, I is the subject of the
sentence, the book is the direct object, and him is the receiver, therefore also
called the indirect object, in which were interested when it comes to the dative
case.
German Dative Case
Definite Articles
Indefinite Articles
Personal Pronouns
Dem, der, dem, den (they Einem, Einer, Einem
mir, dir, ihm, ihr,
all means to the)
(they all mean to a, to
uns, euch, ihnen.
an)
(to me, to you, to him, to
her...)

Adjectives (masc., fem, n

Weien, weien, weien,
(all these forms mean to w

Usually the equivalent of the dative case in English would include to, like our
example above, I give the book to him, I send it to him, I show it to him but in
German that to is usually included in the expression used, for example to him =
ihm to the = dem so its not that complicated after all.
German Genitive
Finally we will learn the genitive in German. Its not used as often as the other
cases, but still has its own importance, because the genitive in German means
possession, or in other words it means the expression of or s. The book of
my teacher = das Buch meines Lehrers.
Definite Articles
Indefinite Articles
Des, der, des, der(they all Eines, Einer, Eines

German Genitive Case

Personal Pronouns
mir, dir, ihm, ihr,

Adjectives (masc., fem, n

Weien, weien, weien

means ofthe)

(they all mean of a, of

an)

uns, euch, ihnen.

(to me, to you, to him, to
her...)

(all these forms mean wh

Note that nouns in the masculine and neuter take an s at the end, as in our
example: The book of my teacher = das Buch meines Lehrers.
Feminine and plural nouns dont take any s at the end. More detailed
information would be in the German Nouns page. Also you can check out the
adjectives and articles page to see how they form in different cases with some
examples.
German Articles
If you dont know it yet articles in German change depending on the case used in
the sentences. If youre not familiar with that then please check the German
Cases page before proceeding to this page.
German Definite Articles
The definite articles in German refer to specific persons, objects, ideasetc. and
they are : der, die, das, die (plural) they all mean the expression the in
English, der is used for masculine nouns, dieis used for feminine nouns, das is
used for neuter nouns, and finally die used also for plural nouns.
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Plural

German Definite Article

der Mann (the man)
die Frau (the woman)
das Brot (the bread)
die Mnner (the men), die Frauen (the women), die Brote (the breads)

Well, thats not all; the form we went through above is only for the nominative
case. Now lets have a look at all the rest:

Nominative case
Accusative case
Dative case
Genitive cases

German Definite Articles

masculin feminin neuter
plural
e
e
der
die
das
die
den
die
das
die
dem
der
dem
den
des
der
des
der

the
the
to the
of the

Here are some examples:

Nominative: der Mann ist hier (the man is here)
Accusative: Ich gre den Mann (I greet the man)
Dative: Ich gebe dem Mann ein Buch (I give the book to the man)
Genitive: Ich habe das Buch des Mannes (I have the book of the man)

You may have noticed how the definite article changes each time the case changes.
So try to memorize the table above by heart, Im sure its not that hard.
German Indefinite Articles
The indefinite articles in German refer to unspecified persons, objects, ideasetc.
and they are: ein, eine, ein, they all mean the indefinite article a, an in
English, ein is used for masculine nouns, eineis used for feminine nouns, ein is
used for neuter nouns, and there is no plural for the indefinite article.
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter

German Indefinite Article

ein Mann (a man)
eine Frau (the woman)
ein Brot (a bread)

Again, thats not all; the form we went through above is only for the nominative
case. Now lets have a look at all the rest:

Nominative case
Accusative case
Dative case
Genitive cases

German Indefinite Articles

masculine
feminine
ein
eine
einen
eine
einem
einer
eines
einer

neuter
ein
ein
einem
eines

a, an
a, an
to a, to an
of a, of an

Here are some examples:

Nominative: ein Mann ist hier (a man is here)
Accusative: Ich gre einen Mann (I greet a man)
Dative: Ich gebe einem Mann ein Buch (I give the book to a man)
Genitive: Ich habe das Buch eines Mannes (I have the book of a man)
So the same thing happens to the indefinite article, it changes each time the case
changes. So try to memorize the table above by heart as well. Good luck!
Adjectives in German as well as in English describe or modify nouns, but in
German they should agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.
Adjectives forms vary depending on the case (nominative, accusative, dative and
genitive).
Note how adjectives take an extra e when theyre placed before nouns and
a definite article is placed before them in the nominative:
German Adjectives
Masculine: (schnell/ fast): der schnelle Tiger (the fast tiger).
Feminine: (jung/ young): die junge Dame (the young lady).
Neuter: (klug/ smart): das kluge Kind (the smart child).

Plural: (gut/ good): sie sind gute Bcher (theyre good books).

For all the rest of the cases (accusative, dative and genitive) adjectives ending take
en in the masculine, and e in the feminine and neuter.
Accusative: Ich habe den schnellen Tiger gesehen (I have seen the fast tiger), Ich
habe die jungeDame gesehen. (I have seen the young lady).
The same thing happens with dative and genitive where the adjective take en in
the masculine, and e in the feminine/ neuter/plural.
Remember that this happens only when we add a definite article der, die, das (the)
or the pronouns dieser (this), jener (that), solcher (such), jeder (each), welcher
(which).
The plural ending for these weak adjectives is en in ALL cases (nominative,
accusative, dative, and genitive), which is good news.
Ich habe die schnellen Katzen gesehen (I have seen the fast cats).
Ich habe die jungen Damen gesehen (I have seen the young ladies).
Adjectives proceeded by the indefinite articles (ein/ eine/ ein) or
the pronouns such as mein (my, mine), sein (his) kein (no) have an irregular
declension:
singular
nominative
accusative
dative
genitive

Adjetives in German
masculine
feminine
ein guter Mann
eine schne Rose
einen guten Mann
eine schne Rose
einem guten Mann
einer schnen Rose
eines guten Mannes einer schnen Rose

neuter
ein altes Buch
ein altes Buch
einem alten Buch
eines alten Buches

The plural endings for strong adjectives are the same for all three genders:
Plural adjectives
nominative
keine guten Mnner
accusative
keine guten Mnner
dative
keinen guten Mnnern
genitive
keiner guten Mnner

Below is a list of some common adjectives in German, theyre in their original

form, so theyre not yet influenced by any other cases like (accusative, dative, and
genitive), so take that into consideration when you put these adjectives in a non
nominative case.
For example: Er ist schnell (he is fast). (but) Er ist ein schneller Mann.(note how in
the first setences the adjective schnell wasnt influenced by anything and therefore
stayed in its original form, but in the second example ein made it take er at the
end). The same thing may occur to the adjectives below:
List of German Adjectives

ambitious
American
annoying
bad
beautiful
big, large
blonde
boring
brave
careless
cautious
certain
charming
cheerful
Chinese
conceited
conventional
coward
crazy, nuts
cruel
difficult
disagreeable
dull, boring
easy
English
fake
fat
few, a little
French
frequent
friendly
fun, amusing
funny
general
generous
German
good
handsome
hard-working
high, tall
honest
intelligent
interesting
kind
laid-back
lazy
little, small
low, short
mean
modest
moody
naive
narrow-minded
new

ehrgeizig
Amerikaner
rgerlich
schlecht
schn
gro
blondine
langweilig
tapfer
unbesonnen
vorsichtig
bestimmt
charmant
frhlich
Chinesisch
eingebildet
herkmmlich
feigling
verrckt, Nsse
grausam
schwierig
unangenehm
dumm, langweilig
leicht
Englisch
unecht
Fett
wenige, ein wenig
Franzsisch
hufig
freundlich
lustig, amsant
komisch, komisch
General
grozgig
Deutsch
gut
hbsch
fleiig
hoch, hoch
ehrlich
intelligent
interessant
Art
entspannend
faul
wenig, klein
niedrig, kurz
niedrig
bescheiden
launisch
naiv
engstirnig
neu

nice (person)
old
perfect
personal
pious
polite
poor
possible
pretty
proud
rapid, fast
realistic
recent
reliable
rich
sad
selfish
sensitive
shy
silly, dumb
skinny
slender, slim
slow
small
Spanish
strict
strong
stubborn
talkative
trustworthy
ugly
various
weak
weird
white
young

nett
alt
vollkommen
Persnlicher
fromm
hflich
schlecht
mglich
ziemlich
stolz
schnell, schnell
realistisch
neu
zuverlssig
reich
jmmerlich
egoistisch
empfindlich
schchtern
dumm, stumm
dnn
schlank
langsam
klein
Spanisch
streng
stark
strrisch
gesprchig
vertrauenswrdig
hsslich
verschieden
schwach
unheimlich
wei
jung

Gender in German
Nouns in German are quite different than in English; the gender is not an issue in
English because all nouns have the same gender, well except humans and some
animals... for example a spoon and a fork have the same gender, but in German
its a little bit more diverse, for some reason the spoon is masculine (der Lffel),
the fork is feminine (die Gabel), and the knife is neuter (das Messer). This may
sound weird but well even in English in some rare cases we do the same thing, for
example you may hear in rare occasions she is a nice car, as if a car is feminine,
or when talking about a baby we use it instead of he/she. In German this
happens all the time with all nouns, so the best thing to do is: when you memorize
new words try to memorize them with their definite article, for example the word
book in German is das Buch, note that I added the definite articles das to it,
which tells me that the book is neuter in German. If you get used to doing that

way you would know if nouns are masculine, feminine or neuter, the good news is
that in may occasions you can guess the gender of nouns given some hints, either
thanks to a suffix or to arule:
German Gender: Masuline
Suffix: Most nouns ending in -en, -el, -ling, -ner, -ismus, -ig, -ich, or -er are masculine:
der Boden (ground), der Vogel (bird), der Frhling (spring), der Vater (father).
Rules: Days, months, and seasons, weather (rain, snow) are usually masculine in German.
der Sonntag (Sunday), der Winter (winter), der Februar (February, der Regen (rain), der Schnee (snow),
but das Wetter (the weather).
Note that these suffixes and rules can only assist you in increasing your chance of guessing what the gender
would be, but its still guessing, because there are some exceptions that can be found time to time.
German Gender: Feminine
Suffix: Nouns ending in -heit, -ie, -ik, -age, -ei ,-ion, -itis, -keit, -ur, -schaft, -tt, and -ungare feminine:
die Freiheit (freedom), die Garage (garage), die Operation (operation), die Mglichkeit(possibility), die
Natur (nature), die Freundschaft (friendship), die Qualitt (quality), die Ehrung, (honor).
Rules: Trees, flowers, fruit, and cardinal numbers are most of the time feminine:
die Fhre (pine tree), die Rose (rose), die Orange (Orange), die Sieben (the seven).

German Gender: Neuter

Suffix: Nouns ending in -ett, -chen, -lein, -il, -ium, -ma, -ment, -nis, -tel, -tum, -um and -oare neuter:
das Bett (bed), das Kaninchen (Rabbit), das Stadium (stage), das Klima (climat), das Geheimnis (secret), das
Viertel (quarter), das Album (album), das Frulein (young lady).
Rules: Names of towns, countries, colors, infinitives used as nouns, and the diminutives that weve seen
above ending in -chen or -lein, theyre all usually neuter: das Berlin (Berlin), das Deutschland (Germany), d
Rot (Red), das Schwimmen (swimming), das Hndchen (little dog), das Kindlein (little child).

Note that you should check the other pages of German Cases and Articles to have a
better idea on how nouns can change depending on the case, and what articles they
take in each case.
The Plural in German
German is more diverse in its plural than in English, to express the plural in
English we simply add s or es to the end of the noun, well in German its not
the case. Some nouns add e to their end: der Freund (friend)
becomes die Freunde (friends), der Schuh (a shoe) becomes die Schuhe(shoes).
Other nouns add en to their end: der Student (student)
becomes die Studenten (students), die Zeit (time) becomes die Zeiten (times).
The other forms of plural in German are:
(-n) for example: die Schule becomes die Schulen (schools).
(no diffrence) for example: das Fenster (window) stays die Fenster (windows).
(-) for example: der Bruder becomes die Brder (brothers).
(-er or -er) for example: das Haus becomes die Huser (houses), or das Kind
becomes die Kinder(childen).

(-s) for example: das Radio becomes die Radios (this form can be used usually with
foreign words) das Baby becomes die Babys
Tips: Note that most nouns ending in the suffixes (-heit, -ie, -ik, -age, -ei ,-ion,
-itis, -keit, -ur, -schaft, -tt, and -ung) add -en in the plural.
Feminine nouns ending in (-in) add -nen to form their plural.
Note that most German plurals add an extra -n or -en to the plural form in the
dative case.
Finally note that while English takes capital letter only in countries names or
days in German allnouns take a capital letter as you may have noticed in this
lesson.
A pronoun in German as well as in English is like a shortcut to refer to a noun, a
word that stands for or represents a noun or noun phrase, a pronoun is identified
only in the context of the sentence in which it is used. So you must have a prior
idea about who "he or she" "er or sie" is. In English we find "I, her, what, that, his",
In German pronouns use is governed by cases (nominative, accusative, dative,
genitive), number and gender. All these three factors can affect the pronoun.
Types of pronouns include personal pronouns (refer to the persons speaking, the
persons spoken to, or the persons or things spoken about), indefinite pronouns,
relative (connect parts of sentences), reciprocal or reflexive pronouns (in which the
object of a verb is being acted on by verb's subject), demonstrative, and
interrogative pronouns.
German Personal Pronouns
The personal (subject) pronouns in German are (ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, Sie,
sie.), and make the equivalent of (I, you, he, she, it, we, you people, you all, they)
in English, usually they take the nominative form, since theyre the subject of the
sentence. Theyre very important and therefore they must be memorized by heart.
I have a pen = Ich habe einen Kugelschreiber.
Personal Pronouns in German
Singular
I
ich
you (familiar)
du
you (formal)
Sie
he, she, it
er, sie, es
Plural
we
wir
you (familiar)
ihr
you (formal)
Sie
they
sie

German Object Pronouns

Object pronouns replace the object of a sentence; direct object pronouns take the
place of the direct object nouns, lets take this example I see a man, a man can
be replaced in English by the direct object pronoun him and not he, so it would
be I see him, the same thing happens in German:
Ich sehe einen Mann becomes Ich sehe ihn.
Note that the direct object pronoun in German is associated with the accusative
case:
Direct Object Pronouns in German
Singular
me
mich
you (familiar)
dich
you (formal)
Sie
him, her, it
ihn, sie, es
Plural
us
uns
you (familiar)
euch
you (formal)
Sie
them
sie

The indirect object pronouns (IOP) are used to replace nouns (people or things) in
a sentence to which the action of the verb occurs. In English usually it is preceded
by a preposition, I give the book to Katja, the name Katja is an indirect object
noun, to replace it with a pronoun we would say in English her, in German we
would say ihr, note that since the IOP is associated with thedative, the
preposition to that we would usually use in English is not used in German, or
rather we would say that its mixed with the pronoun (look at the table below to
understand the concept better), for example to her in German will become one
word ihr.
Indirect Object Pronouns in German
Singular
to me
mir
to you (familiar)
dir
to you (familiar)
Ihnen
to him, to her, to it
ihm, ihr, ihm
Plural
to us
uns
to you (familiar)
euch
to you (formal)
Ihnen
to them
ihnen

German Possessive Pronouns

The possessive is another aspect that you need to master in German, the possessive
pronouns indicate ownership and they replace a noun just like in English, example:
it is my house becomes it is mine. but while in English you can use mine to
the singular and feminine, in German you have to add an e to for the feminine,
Possessive Pronouns in German
Singular
mine
mein/e
yours
mein/e
yours (formal)
Ihr/e
his, hers, its
sein/e
Plural
our
unser/e
yours (familiar)
eur/e
yours (formal)
Ihr/e
theirs
ihr/e

Now we will look at possessive adjectives, which are used more than the pronouns
weve seen above. And since were talking about adjectives it means that they
will take different forms in different cases. For example lets have a look at my
and our in German:

Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Plural

Possessive Adjectives in German

Nominative
Accusative
Dative
mein
meinen
meinem
meine
meine
meiner
mein
mein
meinem
meine
meine
meinen

Genitive
meines
meiner
meines
meiner

Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Plural

Nominative
unser
uns(e)re
unser
uns(e)re

Genitive
uns(e)res
uns(e)rer
uns(e)res
uns(e)rer

Accusative
uns(e)ren
uns(e)re
unser
uns(e)re

Dative
uns(e)rem
uns(e)rer
uns(e)rem
uns(e)ren

Note that we add an e when we deal with the feminine, either in the singular or
the plural; I put it between parentheses above.
As we have learned in the verbs section, reflexive verbs express an action that acts
upon the subject, and with the reflexive verbs you will find reflexive pronouns,
which are placed after of the conjugated verb, for example: Ich washe mich (I
wash myself). Ich stelle mir vor (I imagine myself). Note that these pronouns
have two forms, one with the accusative and another with the dative. When to use
each one of them will depend on the verb, some reflexive verbs are associated with

the accusative, and some others are associated with the dative, you can check
the verbs page to learn more.
German Reflexive Pronouns
Accusative
myself
mich
yourself (familiar)
dich
yourself (formal)
sich
himself, herself, itself
sich
ourselves
uns
yourselves (familiar)
euch
yourselves (formal)
sich
themselves
sich
Dative
myself
yourself (familiar)
yourself (formal)
himself, herself, itself
ourselves
yourselves (familiar)
yourselves (formal)
themselves

mir
dir
sich
sich
uns
euch
sich
sich

A brief summery of the pronouns weve learned so far:

1st singular
2nd singular
3rd singular feminine
3rd singular masculine
3rd singular neuter
1st plural
2nd plural
3rd plural
formal (singular and plural)

German Pronouns
nominative
ich
du
sie
er
es
wir
ihr
sie
Sie

accusative
mich
dich
sie
ihn
es
uns
euch
sie
Sie

dative
mir
dir
ihr
ihm
ihm
uns
euch
ihnen
Ihnen

genitive
meindeinihrseinseinunsereurihrIhr-

German Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstratives usually refer to a previously mentioned noun in a sentence, just like
adjectives they must agree with the gender and number of the noun. The equivalent
to them in English would be this/these.
Nominative case

masculine
dieser

German Demonstratives
feminine neuter
plural
diese
dieses
diese

this/ these

Accusative case
Dative case
Genitive cases

diesen
diesem
dieses

diese
dieser
dieser

dieses
diesem
dieses

diese
diesen
dieser

this/ these
to this/ these
of this/ these

Other Pronouns:
Relative Pronouns: in German they are der, die, das (who, that,
which), wer, was (who, that) andwelcher (who, that). The gender, number, and
case of the relative pronoun should agree with its antecedent.
Interrogative Pronouns: the most important in German
are: wer (who), wen (whom), wem (to
whom), wessen (whose), was (what), welcher (which).
Indefinite pronouns are: all- (all), ander- (other), einig- (one), etwas (some), jed(each), kein- (no), nichts (nothing), man (we, one), niemand (no one).
Verbs in German are more diverse than in English; in this page we will learn their
categories, and the most used tenses in German, note that this page is including
only the important information you should know about in German verbs, and it
doesnt include details about each category or each tense.

German Verbs
In German verbs are categorized into three categories: weak verbs, strong, and mixed verbs.
Weak verbs (schwache Verben) do not change the stem vowel in the past tense and the past participle and t
like regular verbs in English, examples: arbeiten (to work), spielen (to play).
Strong verbs (starke Verben) do change the stem vowel in both the past tense and the past participle, exam
speak), fahren (to drive, go)
Mixed verbs contain parts of both weak and strong verbs. Theyre used very often and therefore they should
overlooked, examples: bringen (to bring), senden (to send)

Some verbs in the 3 categories above may contain separable (trennbar)

or inseparable (untrennbar) prefixes. The point of using these prefixes is to create
new meanings from the original verb. This concept is not strange to English, lets
look at the verb to stand if we add the prefix under it will give us a whole new
verb to understand, the same thing in German, stehen means to stand,
verstehen means to understand. Easy, right! Well not exactly, because German
uses these prefixes more often. And some prefixes can be detached from the
original verb and take a specific spot in the sentences, sometimes even far from the
verb.

Separable prefixes (trennbar) are (ab, bei, ein, vor, an, auf, mit, weg, etc.) can stand independently as wo
connected to the verb, Kann ich mitkommen? (Can I come with you?), kommen Sie mit ans Meer? (are yo
the sea), here the verb is mitkommen, see how in the first example it was connected, and in the second exa
mit was placed after Sie. The meaning of mitkommen is to accompany or come with.

The inseparable prefixes (untrennbar) are (be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ver-, zer-). These kind of prefixes cannot
their verbs, The most common inseparable prefix verbs are: verkaufen (to sell), bekommen (to get), empfang

empfehlen (to recommend), entdecken (to discover), verstehen (to understand), versagen (to fail), zerstren (