Our lesson for today was about setting up appointments. This can be quite confusing as accusative and dative cases come into use. As previously discussed in German 10, the German language use four cases: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. For this chapter, we focused on accusative and dative cases.
Aside from understanding German prepositions, the German cases gives me headache. So, to put simply, German cases are concerned with nouns since the nouns in German have genders: the definite articles der, das, die, as well as the indefinite articles ein, eine and kein, keine all depend on the gender of the noun, adjective, and verb it precedes.
Der Akkusativ.
In English the accusative case is known as the objective case (direct object). In English, we learned that direct object is the receiver of the action. It can be nouns, pronouns, phrases, or clauses. It answers the question "What?" or "Whom?" after an action verb. The German accusative case only changes in the masculine gender, meaning we don't need to worry about the feminine, neuter or plural for the moment.
Example: Ich habe eine Buch. (I have a book).
✔ It answers "what" I have.
✔ Book in German is masculine, therefore, der Buch will become ein Book since it is indefinite. In the accusative case, it will be einen Buch. (Note that all German nouns are capitalized, regardless if proper, common or collective nouns. The only exception would be the pronouns with the exception of "Sie", the formal form of you.) Rules, rules, rules. I must know them by heart!!!
Time expressions in a sentence are usually in accusative: jeden Tag, letzten Sommer, den ganzen Tag, diesen Abend, whole nächst- next letzt- last vorig- last jed- etc.(Note that these are definite times. Indefinite times such as "one day" or "once upon a time" in English use the genetive case in German, which I shall not trouble myself. Yet.)
Example: Jeden Morgen esse ich Reis zum Frühstück. (Every morning, I eat rice for breakfast).
✔ It answers "what" I eat every morning or "jeden Morgen".
Der Dativ.
Now, it gets more serious when it comes to the dative case in German. The dative case is used to show the indirect object of a verb - the receiver of the direct object. It answers the questions "Who to/for?" or "to/for what?" It’s usually a person, although it doesn't have to be. I think that in English, we don't conjugate much in relation to grammar cases. Meaning, we don't distinguish the direct and indirect object in the forms of words instead, we often use "to" or "for" to mark these.
Example: Ich gab der Frau einen Apfel. (I gave the woman an apple).
✔ It answers "to whom" did I give the apple to.
✔ Woman in German is feminine, therefore die Frau will become der Frau since it is definite, and in dative case.
✔ "I" is the subject, "apple" is direct object (the receiver of my action, which is "to give") and the "woman" is the indirect object.
A lot of conjugations happen in dative, so I just look at my table and hope that by some miracle, every exam from hereon, we'll be allowed to open our notes. Oh, hi there Ms. Jean! :D
bestimmter Artikel | unbestimmter Artikel | Personalpronomen | |||||||
Nom. | Akk. | Dat. | Nom. | Akk. | Dat. | Nom. | Akk. | Dat. | Possesiv |
der die das die (pl.) | den die das die | dem der dem den (+ _n) | ein ein ein keine | einen eine ein keine | einem einer einem keinen (+ _n) | ich du er es sie wir ihr sie Sie | mich dich ihn es sie uns euch sie Sie | mir dir ihm ihr ihm uns euch ihnen Ihnen | mein_ dein_ sein_ ihr_ sein_ unser_ euer_ ihr_ Ihr_ |
✎ My personal wordbank:
Aufgabe 2, Seite 87 auf Kursbuch.
✿ Hallo, Anja! Gehen wir zusammen ins* Kino?
❅ Ja gern, wann denn?
✿ Morgen Abend?
❅ Nein, das geht nicht. Morgen kann ich nicht.
✿ Und am Freitag?
❅ Freitag ist gut.
✿ Um wie viel Uhr treffen wir uns?
❅ Um sieben?
✿ Okay, tschüss bis dann!
*Cinema in German is masculine, so it should be das Kino. To say in the cinema is to say "in das Kino" however, in das can be conjugated to ins.
I'm trying to familiarize myself with the German prepositions and how they are used in relation with the cases. I found doubletranslate.com to be helpful, and here is the link of their specific page dedicated to understanding the use of German Prepositions.
