Lesson 4 - grammatical cases in German

Good morning everyone!!

While I'm still thinking about yesterday's "word of the day" - der Vogel, and all those great idioms that this word is used in, it's time for some grammar stuff. Grammar is crucial for you...and while a lot of people can argue with that last sentence, I wrote that because of the construction "blablabla is blablabla for". Because that's what we're gonna take a look at today  - four grammatical cases in German.

Would it be pleasant experience...I don't think so ;) Is it helpful in further understanding of the language ? of course it is..so, basically it is a must to know what are the cases and how to use (or why ) them, but it's easier to learn them step-by-step, practicing some meaningful phrases (like lyrics for example), and of course increasing the amount of information gradually ;)

Cases do have a really bad reputation. Especially to people who’s mother tongue is virtually case-free, “has cases” sounds like “has fleas” or “doesn’t shower very often”.  But even people who’s own language does have cases don’t like them too much. Finns complain about the German cases, Germans whine about Polish cases and everybody bitches about ancient Greek and Latin. Cases just seem to give everyone a hard time.
Partially this is because people do not realize what cases are… they are there and they suck… like speed-bumps. 

But before we'll go on with cases, some new words to be used in examples: 

der Vater,Väter                        - father, fathers
die Mutter, Mütter                  - mother, mothers
das Kind, Kinder                      - child, children
die Eltern                                    - parents
das Geschenk, Geschenke   - present, presents

sind                           - (they) are
in                                - in
Berlin                       - Berlin
mit  (dative)          - with
für (accusative)   - for

Basically, what you have to know and what is not so hard to understand is this : 

The grammatical case - as you can see,  from the table above, it appears that there are four grammatical cases in German : 

Long story short, 
1) Nominative - in order to define the Nominative of a sentence, ask the following question : 
Who or what is doing something? Wer oder was tut etwas?

In other words, Nominativ refers to the subject of a sentence (thing or person carrying out an action).
Der Mann liest das Buch.                              Das Mädchen ist sehr freundlich.
Die Frau streichelt den Hund.                       Der Unterricht beginnt um 8 Uhr.
Das Kind kauft den Kuchen.                         Die Torte schmeckt lecker.

2) Genitive - in order to define the Genitive of a sentence, ask the following question : 
Whose? Wessen?

Genitiv , indicates possession (someone owns something, something belongs to someone)
Das ist die Freundin meines Bruders. (That is my brother’s (girl)friend.)
Das Auto meiner Schwester ist grün. (My sister’s car is green.)

The Genitive is also used after the following prepositions:
trotz, während, wegen, auβerhalb, innterhalb, statt.

3) Dative - in order to define the Genitive of a sentence, ask the following question :
Whom? Wem?

Dative - refers to the indirect object of a sentence (the thing or person to whom something is being done)
Ich schenke meiner Frau ein Auto. ( I am giving a car to my wife as a present.)
Sie zeigte ihren Eltern ein Foto. (She showed her parents a photo.)

The Dative is also used after the following prepositions:
mit, nach, bei, von, zu, aus, seit, gegenüber, an, auf, über, unter, vor zwischen, hinter, in, neben. 

4) Accusative - in order to define the Genitive of a sentence, ask the following question :
Who or what is something being done to? Who or what is affected by the verb?Wen? Was?

So Accusative, refers to the direct object of a sentence (thing or person affected by the verb)

Der Mann liest das Buch/ein Buch.                           Ich kaufe ein Auto.
Die Frau streichelt den Hund/ einen Hund.              Er isst einen Apfel.Das Kind kauft den Kuchen/ einen Kuchen.           Sie wirft den Ball.

The Accusative is also used after the following prepositions:
an, auf, hinter, in, neben, zwischen, vor unter, über (movement)
bis, durch, gegen, ohne, wider, um, entlang, für.

Wow, that was a lot rules there... remembering so many things is a bit hard and confusing, esp. when some of those cases have same prepositions and endings... so here's the table with absolutely everything you can expect to see in German : 

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	der Mann ein Mann	die Frau eine Frau	das Kind ein Kind	die Männer, die Frauen, die Kinder -
Genitive	des Mannes eines Mannes	der Frau einer Frau	des Kindes eines Kindes	der Männer, der Frauen, der Kinder -
Dative	dem Mann einem Mann	der Frau einer Frau	dem Kind einem Kind	den Männern, den Frauen, den Kindern -
Accusative	den Mann einen Mann	die Frau eine Frau	das Kind ein Kind	die Männer, die Frauen, die Kinder -

  

Ok...I think that was a lot of information to work on, so just 2 small exercises and we're free to go (remember that the table above has all the answers when it comes to prepositions) :

Please Translate :
Exercise 1/2

The child is in Berlin.
The child's father is in Berlin.
The child's mother is in Berlin.

...
...

Das Kind ist in Berlin.
Der Vater des Kindes ist in Berlin.
Die Mutter des Kindes ist in Berlin.

Exercise 2/2

The children are in Berlin.
The children's parents are in Berlin with the children.
The parents are in Berlin with the children.
The presents are for the children.

...
...

Die Kinder sind in Berlin.
Die Eltern der Kinder sind in Berlin.
Die Eltern sind mit den Kindern in Berlin.

That's it for today's morning cases...don't hesitate to comment in case you find anything unclear about particular case regarding the cases.. :D 
Take care, and have a good weekend,

Cheers,
Bryvus