The four cases – Die vier Fälle

Was sind die Kasus/ Fälle? (What are the cases?)

Nouns always have different roles in the sentence. The noun can act as a subject, object, indirect object, or a possession. The case shows the function of a noun or pronoun in a sentence.

There are four cases in German:

Das Buch des Mannes (the man’s book)

Beispiel (example):

Der Ehemann der Nachbarin gibt dem Kind das Geschenk

Subject    verb  indirect object   object

Nominativ   Genitiv     Dativ   Akkusativ

The neighbor's husband gives the gift to the child.

This example includes the four cases together.