Kilo Lingo
German grammar Part of Chapter 3

CEFR A1-A2

6 min read

Test yourself (26 questions)

German Cases Chart: All Four, in the Order They Matter

By Michael McGettrickUpdated 12 October 2026

German marks who did what with the article, not with word order. Change to and the subject becomes the object, wherever the words stand. That is the whole case system, and it is worth understanding before you memorise a single table. It is also the one part of German that deserves its reputation.

Quick check

Three quick questions on what you have just read. The full practice is further down.

Pick the right one

0/3

Which case is the noun in brackets in?

  1. Der Mann sieht das Kind. (der Mann)

  2. Ich sehe den Vater. (den Vater)

  3. Ich helfe dem Kind. (dem Kind)

The four jobs

Each job has its own colour, here and in every Kilo Lingo course. The colour sits on the letter of the article that changes.

nominativeaccusativedativegenitiveWhat do the colours mean?
CaseThe noun's jobMasculineEnglish
nominativethe subjectthe man (does it)
accusativethe objectthe man (it hits him)
dativethe recipientto, for the man
genitivethe ownerof the man

One sentence per job:

GermanEnglish
.The man is here.
.I see the man.
.I help the man.
the man house

Look at the English column: English does these jobs with word order and an apostrophe s. German does all four with one letter of the article.

Nominative and accusative first, because they change meaning

nominativeaccusativeWhat do the colours mean?

These two carry the most weight for a beginner. The subject is nominative; the thing the verb lands on is accusative. On a masculine noun the article shows it:

der Mann (the subject) becomes den Mann (the object)

Now watch one letter turn the event round:

ArticleGermanEnglish
.The man sees the child.
.The child sees the man.

Identical words, identical order, opposite events. The only difference is against : if you are not reading the article, you are not reading the sentence.

It works the other way too. Both of these mean the man sees the child:

OrderGerman
neutral .
child first .

A German writer picks between them for emphasis, or to land a word at the end. English has to rewrite the sentence to do the same job.

Only the masculine shows it

Feminine, neuter and plural articles look the same in both cases, so there the verb and common sense decide:

GenderNominativeAccusative
masculine
feminine
neuter
plural
  • . - I see the woman.
  • . - I see a dog. ( follows the same rule: )

The German cases chart

nominativeaccusativedativegenitiveWhat do the colours mean?

The full definite article, which is where the cases live. Read it by row: the dative row changes most.

CaseMasc.Fem.Neut.
nom.
acc.
dat.
gen.

The plural is one column for every gender:

CasePluralExampleEnglish
nom. .The children are here.
acc. .I see the children.
dat. with the children
gen. the children house

The dative plural also adds -n to the noun, as in . The full story of , and , with and , is in the guide to German articles.

The personal pronouns change too, and here English still does the same thing (he, him):

NominativeAccusativeDative
,

The polite follows the last row with a capital letter: . German personal pronouns drills the chart.

Dative arrives sooner than you expect

nominativeaccusativedativeWhat do the colours mean?

The dative is the recipient: the one something is given to, said to, or done for.

One person holds out a smiling book towards a second person, who reaches out happily to take it; a curved arrow with a heart runs from the giver to the receiver.

Der Junge gibt dem Mädchen das Buch: the boy gives the girl the book. The giver is der Junge (nominative), the book is what is given (accusative), and the girl who receives it is dem Mädchen (dative).

VerbGermanEnglish
.I give the child the money.
.I help the father.
.That belongs to the man.

English marks the same distinction with position and the word to. Some verbs, like , simply take the dative: there is nothing being handed over, but the father still gets .

The bigger reason the dative cannot wait is prepositions. Seven very common ones always take it, with no exceptions:

PrepositionExampleEnglish
with the dog
from the man
to the house
at the mother
out of the house
after the meal
for a year (so far)

In speech and usually fuse: , . The case is still sitting inside them. Meet these prepositions, and you have met the dative whether you planned to or not.

Which prepositions take which case

A preposition decides the case of the noun after it, whatever that noun is doing in the sentence.

CasePrepositions
always accusative, , , ,
always dative, , , , , ,
accusative or dative, , , , , , , ,
genitive (formal), , ,

The third row has a decision in it. With these two-way prepositions, the accusative answers ? (where to?) and the dative answers ? (where?).

Two panels. In the first, a man with a moustache walks along the grass towards a yellow house, a dashed arrow pointing at its door. In the second, the same house is cut away to show him inside, waving, beside a lamp.
  1. .
  2. .

Going into the house (Ich gehe in das Haus, where to: accusative), then being in it (Ich bin in dem Haus, where: dative).

QuestionGermanEnglish
? .I go into the house.
? .I am in the house.
? .I run in the park.

The last row is the trap: running about inside the park is still where, so it is dative. In speech the article fuses with in, and these are the normal forms, not slang:

  • . - I go into the house. ( = )
  • . - I am in the house. ( = ) German prepositions has the full lists.

A worked example

nominativeaccusativedativeWhat do the colours mean?

Take one sentence and find the jobs:

. - The man gives the child the money today.

PhraseCaseWhy
nominativemasculine : he does the giving
dative on a neuter noun: it receives
accusativenot the subject: it is given

Now move it about: . Same event, with the child first for emphasis, and the articles still say who did what.

Genitive can wait

genitivedativeWhat do the colours mean?

The genitive marks the owner, and it is retreating from spoken German. Where a textbook shows a genitive, many speakers use plus the dative instead:

StyleGermanEnglish
written the father car
spoken the father car

Recognise the genitive when you read it; do not lose sleep producing it in your first year.

Mistakes English speakers make

WrongRightWhy
. .the object: becomes
. . takes the dative
always takes the dative
takes the accusative
. .I am in it: where, so dative

The practical order

  1. Nominative and accusative, as a pair: the contrast is what changes meaning.
  2. Dative, through the prepositions that demand it: .
  3. Genitive, recognised before it is produced.

When a German sentence looks like a jumble, do not translate left to right. Find the articles, find the subject, and read outward from there. The German course drills exactly that.

Practise: test yourself

Pick the right one

0/5

Which case is the noun in brackets in?

  1. Der Mann sieht das Kind. (der Mann)

  2. Ich sehe den Vater. (den Vater)

  3. Ich helfe dem Kind. (dem Kind)

  4. Ich gehe mit dem Hund. (dem Hund)

  5. Den Mann sieht das Kind. (das Kind)

Sort into groups

0/8

Which case follows each preposition?

Tap a word, then the group it belongs in.

Spot the mistake

0/4

Each sentence has one wrong article. Tap it.

Complete the story

0/5

Choose the article the job in the sentence needs.

A walk in the park

Vater geht mit Hund in den Park. Dort sieht er Freund. Er gibt Freund einen Apfel. Der Hund bekommt nichts, und das ist nicht gut für Hund.

Gap 1 of 5

Matching

0/4

Match the article to the case it marks on a masculine noun.

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Frequently asked questions

How many cases does German have?
Four: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. English marks some of the same distinctions, but only on pronouns - he, him, his - and uses word order for everything else. German applies the system to every noun phrase, which is why it feels foreign and not why it is difficult.
Which German case should I learn first?
Nominative and accusative together, because the contrast between them is the one that changes meaning most often and because they cover the majority of simple sentences. Dative next, largely because a group of very common prepositions demand it and you cannot avoid them. Genitive last: it is retreating from ordinary spoken German and a beginner can read for a long time without needing to produce it.
What is the difference between accusative and dative?
Accusative is the thing the verb lands on; dative is the person it lands for. In (I give the child the money), the money is accusative because it is what is given, and the child is dative because it is the one it is given to. English marks this with word order or with the word to, so the distinction is real in English, just invisible.
Why does German word order not matter as much as English?
Because the case endings already say who is doing what, so position is free for emphasis instead of being spent on grammar. and both mean the man sees the child. English has no endings left, so it cannot do this: the dog bit the man and the man bit the dog are different events.
Do I really need the genitive?
To read, yes eventually; to speak as a beginner, no. Spoken German often uses plus the dative where the genitive used to stand: rather than . Formal writing still uses the genitive, so it is worth recognising long before it is worth producing.