The Cases- The Dative
Now that you understand the concept of the direct object (i.e., the object to which the action is being done in a sentence), you are ready to look at the concept of the indirect object. An indirect object is the person or thing to (or for) whom (or which) an action is being performed. In English this is often indicated by the words “ to” or “ for.” The dative is used to show the indirect object of a sentence. |
Die Frau gibt dem Mann einen Kuss. |
The woman gives the man a kiss. |
In this example the man (“dem Mann”) is the indirect object. You can see from the article “einen” that “einen Kuss” is the direct object and therefore accusative. “Die Frau” is the subject of the sentence. In the dative case all the articles change. Have a look at the table below to see how the articles change depending on the case.
Definite articles:
Nominative |
Accusative |
Dative |
|
| Masculine | der | den | dem |
| Feminine | die | die | der |
| Neuter | das | das | dem |
Indefinite articles:
Nominative |
Accusative |
Dative |
|
| Masculine | ein | einen | einem |
| Feminine | eine | eine | einer |
| Neuter | ein | ein | einem |
In German the dative is also called “der Wemfall”, so the question words for the dative are to whom (“wem”) or what (“was”). The woman gives a kiss to whom? The woman gives a kiss to the man. “The man” is dative.
Zum Beispiel
| Paul gibt einem Mann das Ticket. | Paul gives the ticket to a man. |
| Holger wirft dem Mädchen den Ball zu. | Holger throws the ball to the girl. |
| Der Frau gefällt das Hotel. | The woman likes the hotel. |
You might wonder why “ein Buch” doesn’t change into “einen Buch”. This is because the noun “Buch” is neuter (“das Buch”). Only masculine articles change in the accusative.
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