German Dative Case

Learn about the dative case in German

     

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German Dative Case

The dative case corresponds to indirect objects.  Usually in English, we use the words to or for to indicate an indirect object.  But German relies on the endings of the dative case.  Here are the dative forms of the definite and indefinite articles.

 

Definite and Indefinite Articles

	Masc.	Fem.	Neuter	Plural
Definite	dem	der	dem	den
Indefinite	einem	einer	einem	keinen

Those same masculine nouns that added an -(e)n in the accusative form also add an -(e)n in the dative form.  And all plural nouns add an -(e)n in the dative plural, unless they already end in an -n or -s.  Wem (to/for whom) is the dative of wer (who).

Personal Pronouns

mir	me	uns	us
dir	you	euch	you
ihm	him	ihnen	they
ihr	her	Ihnen	you
ihm	it

In sentences with both a direct and indirect object, the noun in the dative case precedes the accusative noun, unless the accusative case is a pronoun.

Ich schenke meinem Bruder eine Krawatte.  I give (to) my brother a tie.
Ich schenke sie meinem Bruder.  I give it to my brother.

 

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