Declension of Nouns in German By Andrew Whiteman

IntroductionAndrew Whiteman studied

German as a student at Royal Oak High School in Royal Oak, Michigan. Before enrolling at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in biology, Andrew Whiteman participated in a study abroad exchange through the German American Partnership Program.

About the German LanguageGerman nouns, as well as the adjectives,

pronouns, and articles that modify them, are declined into four cases. Speakers use the nominative case to signal that the noun is the subject of the sentence. By contrast, the accusative case indicates that the noun is the direct object of a sentence. In simple terms, this means that the noun is a direct recipient of the verb's action. For example, in the sentence, “Hans threw the ball,” Hans would be in the nominative case, while the ball would be in the accusative case.

ConclusionThe dative case is used when a

noun is the indirect object of a verb, which means that something is done to or for someone. For example, if Hans threw the ball to Gretl, “Gretl” would be in dative case. The final case, genitive, is used to indicate belonging. If Hans threw his mother's ball, “his mother” would take the genitive case.