German Dative Case Basics with Indirect Objects
Lots of German learners think that the dative case is the most complicated of the German cases, but it doesn’t have to be. Over the next several lessons I will teach you all of the things you need to know about the dative case. Today we will tackle the dative case as it is used with indirect objects. This includes definite and indefinite articles (der-words and ein-words).
If you really want to master the German case system, you need Herr Antrim's book "Mastering the German Case System". It is available here as an ebook or on Amazon as a paperback book. You can also get his workbook as a paperback book on Amazon and practice what you learn in the main book.
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More Dative Case Lessons
Indirect Objects and the Dative Case
Two-Way Prepositions (Wechselpräpositionen) with Accusative & Dative
Dative Prepositions with Da-Compounds
Two-Way Prepositions with Da-Compounds
What is an indirect object in German?
Der Mann gibt deiner Mutter Blumen. -
The man gives your mother flowers.
Der Mann gibt deiner Mutter eine Halskette. -
The man gives your mother a necklace.
Der Mann gibt deiner Mutter einen Kuss. -
The man gives your mother a kiss.
Dein Vater verpasst dem Mann ein blaues Auge. -
Your father gives the man a black eye.
In the first three examples, your mom is the indirect object.
The nominative case is used for the subject of the sentence. That’s the person or thing that is doing something in the sentence. This is also the person or thing that decides how the verb needs to be conjugated.
The accusative case is used with direct objects. These are the things or people that are being acted upon by the subject of the sentence. If you buy something, that something is the direct object and in German that’s accusative.
If the direct object goes in the direction of someone or something, that someone or something is an indirect object. The indirect object receives the direct object. The indirect object in German uses the dative case.
German Definite Articles Chart with Nominative, Accusative and Dative
You have probably seen a chart that looks something like this before. What I consider the baseline for all cases is the nominative case. Words for “the” are called definite articles. The only change between nominative and accusative articles occurs with masculine nouns. “der” becomes “den”. When we get to the dative case, everything changes. “die” becomes “der”, “der” and “das” become “dem” and the plural “die” becomes “den”.
So feminine is now masculine, masculine and neuter have merged into one super gender and the plural has become the masculine accusative?
No. That’s not at all what is going on here. The genders of nouns, while represented by the article are not the articles themselves. The gender of the noun is determined by the noun itself. The article that is put in front of that noun is determined by the gender and the way in which it is used.
Don’t think “der” means it is masculine, but rather masculine nouns when used as the subject of the sentence, are represented with the word “der”. When that same noun is used as the direct object, it is represented by “den”. Then when it is used as an indirect object, it is represented with “dem”.
Trust me, this is a lot easier for your brain to handle.
Nominative, Accusative and Dative Case Examples
Let’s try an example to start this off. We will use “der Mann” to keep things simple. Again, I don’t say “der Mann” to say it is always “der”, but rather as the starting point for the way the articles change from here on out with the word “Mann”.
Der Mann geht ins Lebensmittelgeschäft. -
The man goes (is going) into the grocery store.
The man is the one doing something in the sentence, which makes him the subject and therefore nominative.
Dein Vater schlägt den Mann. -
Your father hits the man.
Your father is the one doing something in this sentence, which makes him the subject and nominative. The man is now on the receiving end of the action, i.e. the verb “schlagen” (to hit). In other words, the man is being hit. This makes him the direct object and therefore accusative.
Dein Vater verpasst dem Mann ein blaues Auge. -
Your father gives the man a black eye.
Your father is still the subject, as he is still the one doing something. The action, however, is transferred to “ein blaues Auge” (a black eye). That makes the eye the direct object and therefore accusative. Let me know in the comments if you know why the Germans give a blue eye, while the English speakers give a black eye.
The one receiving the direct object is the man. This means he is indirectly being acted upon by your father through the direct object. This is why we call it the indirect object and it takes the dative case.
Now, throughout all of those examples, we had the same noun, “Mann”. It went from “der” in the first one to “den” and “dem”. The gender of the noun didn’t change. The article preceding it did.
Can all sentences have an indirect object?
No. Not all verbs have the ability to take indirect objects. This is due to the action that the verb expresses. Obviously you can buy or sell someone something, give them it, or send them it, but you can’t be them something or go them something.
Indirect Objects with the Dative Case Examples
Herr Antrim bringt dem Doktor Deutsch bei. -
Herr Antrim is teaching the doctor German.
The word for “timey-wimey stuff” in German is “schnibbedi-schnick wibbelig-wabbeliges Zeugs”. Bet you can’t say that 3 times fast.
Herr Antrim erzählt der Prinzessin ein Märchen. -
Herr Antrim tells the princess a fairy tale.
Der Makler zeigt der Kundin das Haus. -
The realtor shows the customer the house.
Der Kellner bringt dem Mädchen ein Eis. -
The waiter brings the girl an ice cream.
Der Lehrer stellt dem Schüler eine Frage. -
The teacher asks the student a question.
Why didn’t you use the verb “fragen” in that sentence?
Dem Schüler eine Frage fragen? Das ist ein bisschen doppelt gemoppelt. - That’s a bit redundant.
Plural Dative with Added N
Die Lehrerin gibt den Schülern eine Hausarbeit auf. -
The teacher assigns the students a term paper.
Halt! Stopp! Where did the N at the end of “Schüler” come from? The word “Schüler” is already plural. You don’t have to double pluralize it do you?
No. That N is there to indicate the plural dative. Most of the time this will happen. If the noun already ends with N or it ends with S, you don’t add the N to the end in the dative case.
Weak Nouns in the Dative Case
Meine Schwester sagt dem Polizisten die Wahrheit. -
My sister tells the police officer the truth.
Why did “Polizist” suddenly get an extra two letters? I understand that the plural of “Polizist” is “Polizisten”, but you just said “dem Polizisten”, which means it is masculine and not plural. What’s up with that?
Have you heard of “weak nouns” before? These are certain nouns that simply take -n or -en when they are used in any case that isn’t nominative. “Polizist” is on that list.
If you want a better list of them, I have that built into my book "Mastering the German Case System", which you can get as an ebook here or as a paperback version on Amazon or wherever you get your books.
For a few more examples, however, here are a few popular ones. der Neffe - Neffen, der Held - Helden, der Herr - Herrn, der Name - Namen and a bunch more.
And they are all masculine.
Indefinite Articles with the Dative Case
The dative case is the first case that uses the same endings for all of the indefinite articles as the definite articles. By that I mean that the masculine and neuter endings are -m, feminine is -r and plural is -n.
Der Richter schickt einer Zeugin eine Vorladung. -
The judge sends (is sending) a witness a subpoena.
Der Experte kocht einem Spion ein Ei. -
The expert cooks (is cooking) a spy an egg.
Laura leiht meinem Vater den Hut. -
Laura loans my father the hat.
Meine Kinder erzählen einem Mädchen Witze. -
My children tell a girl jokes.
Sophia schreibt ihren Großeltern Briefe. -
Sophia writes her grandparents letters.
Additional Articles
Don’t forget that there are other words that act like definite articles. By that I mean they use the same endings. Things like “dieser”, “jeder” and “welche”. For example:
Meine Mutter gibt jedem Kind ein Stück Schokolade. -
My mother gives every child a piece of chocolate.
Der Mann verkauft dieser Frau eine Halskette. -
The man is selling this woman a necklace.
Also, the possessive articles such as “mein”, “dein” and so on, use the same endings as the indefinite articles and the negative word “kein” follows the same pattern. For example:
Mein Bruder kauft unserem Vater einen Golfschläger. -
My brother is buying our father a golf club.
Seine Freundin schenkt ihrer Tochter ein Fahrrad. -
His girlfriend is giving her daughter a bicycle.
More Dative Case Lessons
Indirect Objects and the Dative Case
Two-Way Prepositions (Wechselpräpositionen) with Accusative & Dative
Dative Prepositions with Da-Compounds
Two-Way Prepositions with Da-Compounds
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