The dative case is used for the indirect object of a verb. The sentence "Ich gebe meinem Sohn e einen Hund" "I give my son a dog" contains a subject "ich", a verb "gebe", an indirect object "meinem Sohn e "; and a direct object "einen Hund".
Can You Feel the Love Tonight? (German translation)
Dative also focuses on location. See accusative or dative prepositions below. German places strong emphasis on the difference between location and motion; the accusative case is used for motion and the dative for location. There are four important verbs that show this dichotomy: The case of a noun after a preposition is decided by that preposition.
Certain prepositions, called "two way prepositions", have objects either in dative or accusative, depending on whether the use implies position e. A German nominal phrase , in general, consists of the following components in the following order: Of course, most noun phrases are not this complicated; adjectives, numbers, genitive attributes, positions, relative clauses and emphasizers are always optional.
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A nominal phrase contains at least a cardinal number, an adjective, a pronoun or a noun. It always has an article, except if it is an indefinite plural noun or refers to an uncountable mass. If the noun is uncountable , an article is not used; otherwise, the meaning of the sentence changes. A nominal phrase can be regarded a single unit. It has a case, a number, and a gender. Case and number depend on the context, whereas the main noun determines the gender. A nominal phrase may have a genitive attribute , for example to express possession.
This attribute may be seen as merely another nominal phrase in the genitive case which may hang off another nominal phrase. A direct translation of "Der Beruf des alten Mannes" would be "the profession of the old man. It is found in poetry, especially if helpful for metrical and rhyming purposes. A nominal phrase may contain a "position phrase"; this may be seen as merely another nominal phrase with a preposition or postposition or a pronominal adverb see Adverbial phrases.
The still-at-the-beginning-of-the-course-relatively-small-but-nevertheless-noticeable communication difficulties , the communication difficulties still relatively small at the beginning of the course, but nevertheless noticeable.
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These are a feature of written particularly educated German. One also might hear them in the context of formal oral communications as well such as news broadcasts, speeches, etc. A nominal phrase will often have a relative clause. Aside from their highly inflected forms, German relative pronouns are less complicated than English.
There are two varieties. The more common one is based on the definite article der , die , das , but with distinctive forms in the genitive dessen , deren and in the dative plural denen. Etymologically this is related to English that. The second, which is more literary and used for emphasis, is the relative use of welcher , welche , welches , comparable with English which.
As in most Germanic languages, including Old English, both of these inflect according to gender, case and number. They get their gender and number from the noun they modify, but the case from their function in their own clause. The relative pronoun dem is neuter singular to agree with Haus , but dative because it follows a preposition in its own clause. On the same basis, it would be possible to substitute the pronoun welchem. However, German uses the uninflecting was "what" as a relative pronoun when the antecedent is alles , etwas or nichts "everything", "something", "nothing" , or when the antecedent is an entire clause.
The same applies to indirect questions. The inflected forms depend on the number, the case and the gender of the corresponding noun. Articles have the same plural forms for all three genders. In relation to nouns, cardinal numbers are placed before adjectives, if any. If the number is relatively low, it is usually not combined with an indefinite plural article e. Personal pronouns of the first and second person are placed before numbers. Personal pronouns of the third person cannot be used with numbers.
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The cardinal number "one" is partly identical in form and inflection to the indefinite article. The number is distinguished from the article in speech by intonation and in writing sometimes by emphasis e. The numbers zwei two and drei three and sometimes other numbers as well have case endings in some instances. Where an adjective would have weak endings, numbers do not have endings. If an adjective had strong endings, these numbers may also have strong endings in the genitive case.
If there is no other word carrying the strong ending of the genitive plural, the numbers must carry it.
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If these numbers are center of a nominal phrase in the dative plural and no other word carries case markers, they may carry dative endings. German adjectives normally precede the noun they are modifying. German adjectives have endings which depend on the case, number and in the singular gender of the nominal phrase. There are three sets of endings: Which set is used depends on what kind of word the adjective comes after, and sometimes also on the gender and case.
Like articles , adjectives use the same plural endings for all three genders. Participles may be used as adjectives and are treated in the same way. In contrast to Romance languages , adjectives are only declined in the attributive position that is, when used in nominal phrases to describe a noun directly. Predicative adjectives , separated from the noun by "to be", for example, are not declined and are indistinguishable from adverbs. There are three degrees of comparison: The declension of an adjective depends not only on the gender, number and case of the noun it modifies, but also on whether the indefinite article, definite article or no article is used with it.
The following table shows two examples which exemplify all three cases:. Declension of adjectives is mandatory even in proper names. The name of Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, for instance, changes into "das Kunsthistorische Museum" when preceded by a definite article. Adjectival bynames given to historical or legendary persons must also be declined according to their grammatical role in a phrase or sentence. The pronouns of the third person may be used to replace nominal phrases. These have the same gender , number and case as the original nominal phrase.
This goes for other pronouns, too. The reflexive personal pronoun in English, "myself" etc. Uncapitalized also in the 2nd person formal. German verbs may be classified as either weak , if they form their past tense with a dental consonant inflection, or strong , if they exhibit a vowel gradation ablaut. Most verbs of both types are regular, though various subgroups and anomalies do arise. However, textbooks often class all strong verbs as irregular. There are more than strong and irregular verbs, and there is a gradual tendency for strong verbs to become weak. In German declarative main clauses the finite verb is always placed as the second element.
When there are more verbs in a sentence, the non-finite ones are placed at the end of the clause. With a subordinating conjunction, all verbs appear at the end of the clause. A verb placed as the second element does not necessarily mean it is the second word, rather, it is the second constituent of the clause. For instance the first position may be occupied by an article and a noun , a possessive pronoun , or even an entire subordinate clause.
The following examples illustrate the use of subordinate clauses as the first element in a verb second structure: Bold words indicate a subordinate clause.
Underlined words indicate verbs as both second and last elements in the sentence. Inside a subordinate clause, introduced by a conjunction or a relative pronoun, the finite verb form comes last. Bold words indicate the subordinate clause, bold italicized words indicate subordinating conjunction, bold underlined words indicate verbs at end of the sentence.
German has many verbs that have a separable prefix that can be unattached to its root. Examples are aussehen, to appear or look, and vorstellen, to imagine, or to introduce. Prepositions in German can be difficult for English speakers to master. The simple reason is that prepositions are designed to give some direction, location, intensity, etc. The way an English speaker would indicate such things may be totally different from the way a German speaker would.
Furthermore, there are instances where German uses a preposition in a way that might seem strange to a native English speaker, e. For example, in "Mach' die Lichter aus! There is also the verb ausschlafen , literally "to sleep out", which in English idiom would be expressed by "sleep in". The objects of some prepositions have a fixed case. For example, if 'bei', a dative preposition, is used in a sentence, its object will be dative, as in the sentence "Ich mache einen Besuch bei mein er Familie.
I'm visiting with my family. Notice the dative feminine inflection on "mein". The following chart shows the cases associated with several prepositions in common usage. The nascent preposition "Richtung" lit. Read more Read less. Here's how restrictions apply. Books On Demand November 12, Language: Be the first to review this item Would you like to tell us about a lower price? I'd like to read this book on Kindle Don't have a Kindle? Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers.
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