1. CASES (Kasus) Sorry, you can’t avoid them in German.
So, let’s try to understand them one last time.

2. What is a case?
A case is how a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun is used in a sentence.
Which of the following are not nouns or pronouns?
fingernail, paper, you, us, swam, yesterday, snow, how, swimsuit, him
Hopefully you chose “swam”, “yesterday”, & “how”.

3. Nominative, Accusative, Dative, and Genitive
There are 4 cases in German:
Nominative, Accusative, Dative, and Genitive
Nominative: the subject of the sentence ( it DOES the verb)
Accusative: the direct object or object of an Acc. preposition
Dative: the indirect object (“to”/ “for”) or an object of a Dat. preposition

4. Genitive case is used to show possession.—”of”
…and the last case?
Genitive
Genitive case is used to show possession.—”of”
Examples: my sister’s boyfriend: Der Freund meiner Schwester.
the parrot’s food: Das Futter des Papageis
Notice the color coding correspondence.

5. Genitive is sometimes used with these prepositions:
trotz: “despite”; “in spite of”
statt/ anstatt: “instead of”
während: “during”

6. What happens to the articles in each case?
Masc. Fem Neuter Plural
der
die
das
den
dem
des
Nom
Acc
Dat
Gen
These are endings found on “the” and other “determiners” (like “each”, “which”, “this/that/these/those”.)

7. …and what happens with other articles?
Masc. Fem. Neut Plur.
------ -e
-----
-en
-em
-er
-es
Nom
Acc
Dat
Gen
These endings go on “ein-” (a, an one), “kein-” (not any), and possessive articles (like my, your, his…)

8. Yes, only those three. Otherwise, the two charts are the same.
If you compare the last two charts, which boxes have different endings?
Yes, only those three. Otherwise, the two charts are the same.

9. How good is your memory? What is a case in German?
What is affected by a case?
What are the four cases?
What is the purpose of each?
How does knowing the case affect how you write and say the words?

10. What if you wanted to use pronouns instead of noun phrases?
Original: My neighbor gave my brothers Steeler tickets.
New: She gave them to them.
The pronouns must reflect the case and gender of the intended nouns.
So, if “My neighbor” is nominative feminine, the replacement “she” must also be nominative feminine.
And if “my brothers” are dative plural, the replacement
“to them” must also be dative plural.

11. PERSONAL PRONOUNS NOM ACC DAT ich du er sie es wir ihr Sie mich dich
you (fam.)
he, it
she, it it we
you (fam. pl)
they
you (form)
mich
dich
ihn
sie es
uns
euch
Sie me
you
him, it
she, it it us
you all
them
mir
dir
ihm
ihr
uns
euch
ihnen
Ihnen
to/for me
to/for you
to/for him, it
to /for her, it
to it
to us
to you
to them

12. Seine Geschwister kaufen der Mutti einen neuen Laptop.
1. Pick a noun phrase in this sentence :
Seine Geschwister kaufen der Mutti einen neuen Laptop.
You could have chosen:
“Seine Geschwister”
“der Mutti”
or “einen neuen Laptop”
2. Based on it’s gender and case, replace it with a pronoun and rewrite the sentence.
Your new sentence would be one of the following:
Sie kaufen der Mutti einen neuen Laptop.
Seine Geschwister kaufen ihr einen neuen Laptop.
Seine Geschwister kaufen ihn der Mutti.