Cases. The very beginning

In this post we will begin to discuss one of the most basic topic of the German grammar: the cases.

There are four German cases:

The Nominative. Wer?/Was? 

Der Mann liest. Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch.

Refers to the subject of a sentence (thing or person carrying out an action)

The Accusative. Wen?/ Was?

Ich sehe den Mann. Ich sehe das Buch.

Refers to the direct object of a sentence (thing or person affected by the verb)

The Dativ. Wem?

Ich gebe dem Mann die Hand. 

Refers to the indirect object of a sentence (the thing or person to whom something is being done)

The Genitiv. Wessen?

Das ist ein Buch des Mannes

Indicates possession (someone owns something, something belongs to someone)

Cases are not something strange to English. Pronouns use a certain kind of cases, for example we say “he speaks”, and “give him” and not “give he”. The change from “he” to “him”, is the same things that happens when der becomes den in German. The only difference is that in German it’s much more widely used, not only in pronouns, even nouns/ adjectives/ articles are ruled by the cases. 

The German case indicates the role of an element in a sentence. This allows German to have more flexibility in word order, as in the examples below.

Der Hund beißt den Mann. The dog bites the man.
Den Mann beißt der Hund. The dog bites the man.
Beißt der Hund den Mann? Is the dog biting the man?
Beißt den Mann der Hund? Is the dog biting the man?

Since English does not have the same case markers (der/den), it must depend on word order. If you say "Man bites dog" in English, rather than "Dog bites man," you change the meaning. In German the word order can be changed for emphasis (as above)—without altering the basic meaning.

Fortsetzung folgt (to be continued):

• cases in general
• chart to transformation of the definite and indefinite article
• Prepositions with Dativ

http://german.about.com/library/blcase_sum.htm

http://german.speak7.com/german_cases.htm