Dative Case

Both nouns and pronouns make changes when they are in the dative case. Let’s look at the dative case of some example nouns with the definite article (der, die, das), the indefinite article (ein, eine), and kein.

 

 

masculine	feminine	neuter	plural
dem Hund	der Tante	dem Haus	den Häusern
einem Hund	einer Tante	einem Haus	Häusern
keinem Hund	keiner Tante	keinem Haus	keinen Häusern

  Notice that nouns in the dative plural must have an -n ending: mit die Kinder becomes mit den Kindern.

 The personal pronouns change from nominative to dative as follows:

nominative	dative
ich	mir
du	dir
er	ihm
sie	ihr
es	ihm
wir	uns
ihr	euch
Sie	Ihnen
sie	ihnen
jemand	jemand/jemandem
niemand	niemand/niemandem

The dative case is used in four specific ways:

1. It identifies the indirect object of a sentence.

2. It identifies the object of a dative verb.

3. It identifies the object of a dative preposition.

4. It identifies the object of an impersonal expression.

Indirect objects

Indirect objects function similarly in both English and German. To identify the indirect object in an English sentence, ask to whom or for whom of the verb. The answer will be the indirect object. It works the same way in German.

Johann gibt seinem Freund 10 Euro.                       Johann gives his friend 10 euros.

Wem gibt Johann 10 Euro?                                       The indirect object is seinem Freund.

Ich kaufte meiner Mutter Blumen.                          I bought my mother flowers.

Wem kaufte ich Blumen?                                          The indirect object is meiner Mutter.

Consider the following difference in the use of indirect objects in English and German. English tends to use a preposition (to or for) when forming the question about the indirect object. German asks the question with the dative pronoun wem. 

For example:

Wem gibst du das Geld?                                            To whom are you giving the money?

Wem hat er den Kuchen gekauft?                           For whom did he buy the cake?

Dative verbs

There are many dative verbs. Here are some of the most commonly used ones

begegnen	meet, encounter
danken	thank
dienen	serve
drohen	threaten
folgen	follow
gefallen	please, like
gehören	belong to
glauben	believe
helfen	help
raten	advise
schaden	harm
vertrauen	trust

Let’s look at some example sentences with dative verbs.

Ich begegnete einem alten Freund in Bonn.                  I met an old friend in Bonn.

Karin hat mir dafür gedankt.                                            Karin thanked me for it.

Ein fremder Mann folgt uns.                                            A strange man is following us.

Sie kann den Jungen nicht glauben.                               She can’t believe the boys.

Der Alkohol schadet der Gesundheit.                             Alcohol harms your health.

Notice that in the English translations of these German sentences, the object of the verb is a direct object. But in the German sentences, each object is in the dative case.

Dative prepositions

The dative prepositions require their objects in prepositional phrases to be in the dative case. Here are the dative prepositions.

aus	out, from
außer	except (for)
bei	by, at
gegenüber	opposite, across from
mit	with
nach	after
seit	since
von	from, of
zu	to

   Take note that gegenüber does not precede pronouns. It follows pronouns. But it can either precede or follow nouns. If a noun refers to a person, there is a tendency to place gegenüber after the noun.

Let’s look at some examples.

Wer sitzt ihm gegenüber?                                              Who’s sitting across from him?

Die Kirche ist gegenüber dem Park.                             The church is across from the park.

Wir sitzen dem Professor gegenüber.                          We sit opposite the professor.

The dative prepositions act as signals that the nouns or pronouns that follow them must be in the dative case. Here are some examples with dative prepositions:

Die Kinder kommen aus der Schule.                   The children are coming out of the school.

Niemand kennt sie außer meinem Bruder.        No one knows him except my brother.

Mein Onkel wird bei uns wohnen.                       My uncle is going to live at our house.

Ich habe mit ihm Schach gespielt.                        I played chess with him.

Nach dem Konzert gingen sie nach Hause.        After the concert they went home.

Ich wohne seit zwei Jahren in Leipzig.                I’ve lived in Leipzig for two years.

Er ist gerade vom Bahnhof gekommen.              He just came from the train station.

Welche Straße führt zur Universität?                  Which street leads to the university?

Prepositional adverbs

If the object of a preposition is an inanimate object, a prepositional adverb is formed. For example:

preposition               prepositional adverb           question

(mit)   +  ihm   =      damit                                      womit?

(zu)     +  ihr     =      dazu                                        wozu?

(aus)   +  ihnen =     daraus                                    woraus?

If the preposition begins with a vowel, add the letter r between the prefix and the preposition: aus becomes daraus and woraus.

Impersonal expressions

  Numerous German expressions often use es as their subject. They are called impersonal expressions, because they do not identify a specific person or object as their subject. The impersonal it is the doer of the action. Often these expressions require a dative object. For example:

es fällt mir ein	it occurs to me
es gefällt dem	the man likes it
es geht der Frau gut	the woman feels well
es gelingt mir	I succeed, I manage (to do something)
es genügt dem Studenten	the student is satisfied (with something)
es glückt dir	you prosper, you succeed
es kommt mir vor	it appears to me
es passt ihr gut	it fits her well
es scheint ihm	it seems to him
es schmeckt mir	it tastes good to me
es steht ihr gut	she looks good in it

  The impersonal expressions are not used exclusively with the pronoun es. Almost any singular or plural noun that makes sense in the sentence can be used as the subject of these verbs.  For example:

Diese Handschuhe gefallen dem Mann.            The man likes these gloves.

Das Kleid passt ihr gut.                                         The dress fits her well.