1. CASES Everything you ever wanted to know and didn’t dare ask!

2. NOMINATIVE  The only case that doesn’t multitask!  Used for the SUBJECT of the sentence only  The SUBJECT is the person or thing that does the action of the verb  Der Mann spricht  Die Frau spricht  Das Kind spricht  Die Kinder sprechen

3. ACCUSATIVE  Used for the OBJECT of the sentence  The OBJECT receives the action of the verb  Ich sehe den Mann  Ich sehe die Frau  Ich sehe das Kind  Ich sehe die Kinder  NB Depending on your point of view, masculine is either special or a nuisance – it is the only one that changes article from the Nominative to the Accusative

4. GENITIVE  The least important of the four cases  Used to denote POSSESSION  Das Haus des Mann(e)s  The man’s house (The house of the man)  Das Haus der Frau  The woman’s house (The house of the woman)  Das Haus des Kind(e)s  The child’s house (the house of the child)  Das Haus der Kinder  The children’s house (The house of the children)

5. DATIVE  Used for the INDIRECT OBJECT  Verbs like ‘geben’ (to give) will usually have both a DIRECT OBJECT and an INDIRECT OBJECT  Ich gebe dem Mann das Geschenk  I give the man the present (I give the present to the man)  Ich gebe der Frau das Geschenk  I give the woman the present (I give the present to the woman)  Ich gebe dem Kind das Geschenk  I give the child the present (I give a present to the child)  Ich gebe den Kindern das Geschenk  I give the children the present (I give a present to the children)

6. NB  In both Genitive and Dative, as well as the article changing, there is sometimes an addition to the end of the noun  This occurs in Genitive masculine and neuter (des Mann(e)s / des Kind(e)s  Either ‘s’ or ‘es’ is added, depending on the rhythm of the sentence  It also occurs in Dative plural (den Kindern)  An ‘n’ is added if the last letter of the noun is not already an ‘n’

7. PREPOSITIONS  All prepositions are linked to a noun  The only case NOT used with prepositions is the NOMINATIVE  The other three cases are linked to particular prepositions  Some prepositions link with EITHER the Accusative OR the Dative  These are the ‘either/or’ prepositions – look at the verb!  If it is a verb of the movement that would use ‘sein’ as an auxiliary in the Perfect, you must use the Accusative  If there is no movement you must use the Dative

8. TABLES  Learn the articles vertically  ‘der’ etc is the DEFINITE article  ‘ein’ etc is the INDEFINITE article  There is NO ‘ein’ form in the PLURAL

9. MASCULINE  Nomderein  Accdeneinen  Gendes (+es)eines (+es)  Datdemeinem

10. FEMININE  Nomdieeine  Accdieeine  Gendereiner  Datdereiner

11. NEUTER  Nomdasein  Accdasein  Gendes (+es)eines (+es)  Datdemeinem

12. PLURAL  Nomdie  Accdie  Gender  Datden(+n) if required