All 4 German Cases Explained in 8 Minutes (Beginner Lesson)

In the next eight minutes, I will teach you all four German cases. Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ and Genitiv. The German cases are actually easy once you understand the basic logic behind them. So, let me make them simple for you. Los geht's! So here is the basic concept you need to properly understand German cases. Cases tell you what job a noun has in a sentence. First, let's go through the cases one by one. So let's start with nominative. This is usually the easiest one. The nominative tells us who is doing the action. For example, der Mann arbeitet. So here we can ask who is working, who is doing the action. Der Mann. The man is working. So in this case, der Mann is nominative. You can normally find the nominative by asking wer, so who, or was, what. Let's look at one more example. Die Frau arbeitet. The woman is working. So in this case, we ask who is working. Wer. The answer to this question is die Frau. The woman is the person who is working. So, die Frau is nominative. So please remember, nominative is usually the subject of the sentence. It's usually the person or thing doing the action. So now it's your turn. In the comments please write a short German sentence which includes the nominative. So please write about a person or thing doing a very simple action. Okay let's move on to accusative. So in this case we have the sentence der Mann Einen Kaffee. So we already know from the previous couple minutes, der Mann, this is nominative, the person doing the action. But in this case, we ask, what is he buying? Einen Kaffee. He is buying a coffee. So in this case, einen Kaffee is accusative. So in this case, you ask wen, so whom, or was, what. Or was. What. This is how you ask for the accusative. The accusative is often the person or thing that is directly affected by the action. Let's look at one more sentence. Ich sehe den Mann. I see the man. Whom do I see? Den Mann, the man. This is accusative. Now here is one important change. Der Mann is nominative and in akkusativ it changes to den Mann. And this is also why you often notice the akkusativ especially with masculine nouns, because there is a very clear change in the article. We are going to talk about article changes later in the video as well. Now let's look at case number three, dativ. Let's add this one to make the sentence a bit more interesting. Der Mann gibt dem Kind einen Ball. So in this case, we ask who is doing something. Der Mann, this is nominative. What is he giving? Einen Ball, accusative. But who receives the ball? Dem Kind. You know, the child is receiving the ball. That's the dativ. So for dativ, you normally ask wem, to whom. So, der Mann gibt dem Kind einen Ball. Der Mann, who gives, nominative, einen Ball. What does he give? This is accusative. And dem Kind, to whom, this is dative. So, a very useful beginner idea is accusative, the thing being given, and dative, the person receiving it. By the way, the four cases are obviously just a tiny part of German grammar. There is so much more. So if you want to learn German properly, we also have complete German courses from A1 all the way to the B2 level. The courses are very affordable and we've already taught thousands of students with them. And many of our students have also used the courses to pass their German language exams. So if you want to learn German step by step, I put the link to our courses in the video description down below. Alright, let's now continue with the fourth case. Genitive. The genitive usually shows possession or belonging. For example, Das ist das Auto des Mannes. So, this is the man's car. So, we ask, whose car is it? The man's car. So, des Mannes in this sentence is genitive. We ask, wessen? So, whose? And one more example, das ist die Tasche der Frau. Who's bag? Der Frau. This is the woman's bag. Der Frau is genitive. Okay, so we looked at the logic, but how can you form them yourself? Now, you've probably seen a table like this before. In German, depending on the case and gender of the noun, the article in front of the noun changes. And at first, this looks terrible. It is so big. But there are actually some simple patterns for the articles. And let me add one small extra detail to this. In dative plural, the noun often gets an N at the end. And in the genitive, masculine and neuter nouns usually get an S or ES. But don't try to memorize every single form at once. First, understand what the cases mean and learn how to spot them in sentences. And after that, the article changes become much easier to learn. So let's look at one example. DER MANN GIBT DEM KIND DEN BALL DES LEHRERS. This one sentence contains all four German cases, so DER MANN is nominative, DEM KIND Dativ is dativ. Now, there's one important thing you need to know. You cannot always find a German case just by asking questions like who, what, whom and so on. Sometimes the verb decides the case. And very often the preposition decides it too. For example, Mit dem Freund, with the friends. And the preposition mit always takes the dativ. And a different situation für den Freund, for the friend. And the preposition für always takes the accusativ. So if you get more advanced in German, you also have to learn which verbs and prepositions you need for which case. Okay, let's finish this lesson with a test sentence. Die Frau gibt dem Mann das Buch. So please pause the video at this point and try to find the cases. So here we have to ask the questions, who is doing the action? Die Frau, the woman, nominative. To whom does she give something? Dem Mann, this is dative. And what does she give? So if we ask what, we have accusative. So I want you to remember nominative who or what, accusative whom or what, dative to whom, And genitive whose. If the last sentence makes sense to you, you already understand the basic logic behind German cases. And also, don't forget to check out our complete German courses from A1 to B2 in the video description. Love you and stay focused.