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Dative Case in German

(der Dativ)

☰ List of all topics in the level A2

Level A2 Introduction Unit 20: Dative Case in German Unit 21: Declension of German Nouns Unit 22: Dative Pronouns in German Unit 23: German Dative Prepositions Unit 24: Separable Verbs in German Unit 25: Two-way Prepositions in German Unit 26: Reflexive Verbs in German Unit 27: German Perfect Tense Unit 28: German Particles Unit 29: Future Tense in German Unit 30: Passive Voice in German

This lesson contains topics:

1. What is the dative case?
2. Rules of (articles) declension in dative
3. Declension of definite articles in the dative case
4. Sentence structure in the dative
5. Verbs with dative and accusative
6. Declination of indefinite articles in the dative case
7. Dative case examples
8. Declension of kein in the dative case

German for beginners book A2



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What is the dative case?

The dative case represents the indirect object. For instance, in English, we say,
"I bring a pen." In this sentence, "I" serves as the subject, "bring" as the verb, and "pen" as the direct object.
Now, if we introduce an indirect object into this sentence:
"I bring you a pen." In this case, "you" functions as the indirect object.

While learning English grammar, the topic of grammatical cases is not much emphasized because English articles and pronouns do not change their shape (decline) in the dative case. In German, however, articles and pronouns show strong declension in their accusative, dative, and genitive cases. The German translation of the above sentence, "I bring you a pen," is:
Ich bringe Ihnen einen Kuli.
der Kuli (ballpoint pen), bringen (to bring somebody something)
The first noticeable difference is that an indirect object in German comes directly after the verb. The second difference is the declension of pronouns and articles. The above sentence is in polite form. The second-person pronoun "Ihnen" doesn't change in the dative case, but if we use the familiar form of the second-person pronoun:
Ich bringe dir einen Kuli.
Please note that "dich" is not used here. In the dative case, the second-person pronoun "dich" changes to "dir."

Now, if we apply the same principle to a sentence with an article: "I bring the man a pen."
In English, we won't notice much difference, but in German, we observe a complete declension of articles. For instance:
Ich bringe dem Mann einen Kuli.
Please note that we are not utilizing "der" or "den." As we have already learned in Lesson 13 (Accusative), the accusative (direct object) masculine article "der" changes to "den." Similarly, in the dative (indirect object), "den" is not employed, and it further transforms into "dem." This transformation clearly distinguishes the dative (indirect object).

Rules of declension in accusative and dative

In the dative case, the masculine and neuter endings change into "-em." Feminine and plural endings decline to "-er" and "-en," respectively. The following table shows declension rules in the accusative and dative cases.

Declension of definite articles in the dative case

In the dative case, masculine and neuter articles decline to "dem." The feminine article "die" declines to "der," and the plural "die" declines to "den."
The following is the famous German "nominativ akkusativ dativ table."

Examples:
As we have seen in the above table, masculine and neuter definite articles decline to "dem" in the dative case.

Ich gebe dem Mann ein Buch. (I give the man a book.)
Ich gebe dem Mädchen ein Buch. (I give the girl a book.)
In the above examples "der Mann" and "das Mädchen" are indirect objects (dative), so their definite articles "der" and "das" have changed to "dem".
Similarly, the feminine definite article "die" declines to "der", for example, ich gebe der Studentin ein Buch. (I give the (female) student a book.)
The plural definite article "die" changes into "den."
Ich gebe den Studenten die Bücher. (I give [the] books to [the] students.)
"die Studentin" (female student), "die Studenten" (students)

Word order in the dative case

In a sentence with a verb followed by both a direct and an indirect object, when both objects are nouns, the indirect object (dative) comes before the direct object (accusative).

The sentence structure explained above represents the standard word order. Nevertheless, for emphasis or any other specific purpose, one can place the dative (indirect object) or accusative (direct object) at the beginning. This flexibility is a distinctive feature of declension.

Dem Mann bringe ich einen Kuli.
Einen Kuli bringe ich dem Mann.

Verbs with dative and accusative

(Verbs that take both accusative and dative objects)
Certain verbs require both accusative (direct object) and dative (indirect object), as discussed earlier. For example:
"Ich bringe dem Mann einen Kuli." (I give the man a pen.) In this case, "bringen" (to bring) is a verb that takes both accusative and dative objects.
Here are some other verbs that can take both, accusative or/and dative objects:

geben (to give)
zeigen (to show)
schicken (to send)
kaufen (to buy)
liefern (to deliver, to supply)
erklären (to explain)
erzählen (to tell, to narrate)
All these verbs have common characteristics; for example, we can say: to give somebody something, to show somebody something, to send somebody something.
In all these verbs, something is the direct object (accusative), and somebody is the indirect object (dative).

Certain verbs are exclusively followed by the dative case. We will discuss this topic after covering the declension of pronouns in the dative case.

Declination of indefinite articles in the dative case

In the dative case, the indefinite articles "ein" for masculine and neuter nouns decline to "einem." The feminine indefinite article "eine" declines to "einer."
To better understand the declination of indefinite articles in the dative case, please refer to the following nominative, accusative, and dative table.

Dative case examples

We are using only nouns in the following examples, as we haven't learned pronoun declination in the dative case yet.

geben (to give)

Without dative: Ich gebe das Buch. (I give this book.)
With dative: Ich gebe einem Freund das Buch. (I give the book to a friend.)

zeigen (to show)

Without dative: Ich zeige das Auto. (I show the car.)
With dative: Ich zeige der Frau das Auto. (I show the car to the woman.)

schicken (to send)

Without dative: Ich schicke ein Geschenk. (I send a gift.)
With dative: Ich schicke dem Freund ein Geschenk. (I'm sending a gift to the friend.)

kaufen (to buy)

Without dative: Ich kaufe die Pizza. (I am buying the pizza.)
With dative: Ich kaufe der Sabine eine Pizza. (I am buying a pizza for Sabine.)

liefern (to deliver, to supply)

Without dative: Du lieferst die Pizzen. (You deliver the pizzas.)
With dative: Du lieferst den Leuten die Pizzen. (You deliver pizzas to the people.)

erklären (to explain)

Without dative: Er erklärt die Wahrheit. (He explains the truth.)
With dative: Er erklärt dem Boss die Wahrheit. (He explains the truth to the boss.)

erzählen (to tell, to narrate)

Without dative: Sie erzählt eine Geschichte. (She tells a story.)
With dative: Sie erzählt einem Mädchen eine Geschichte. (She tells a story to a girl.)

Declension of kein in the dative case

In our previous lessons, we've learned that "kein" behaves similarly to indefinite articles like "ein" and "eine." Therefore, in the dative case, the declension of "kein" follows a pattern akin to indefinite articles. Specifically, when used with a masculine or neuter indirect object, the word "kein" changes to "keinem," while in the case of feminine indirect objects, it becomes "keiner," and with plural indirect objects, it transforms into "keinen."

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