Basic German Grammar Topics
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German-Gender of Nouns4 Topics
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German-Nominative4 Topics
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German-Numbers4 Topics
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German-Adjectives4 Topics
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German-Personal Pronouns & the Verb sein4 Topics
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German-Regular Verbs in the Present Tense4 Topics
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German-Plural Formation4 Topics
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German-Haben and the Accusative Case4 Topics
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German-Word Order4 Topics
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German-Definite Articles4 Topics
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German-Indefinite Articles4 Topics
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German-Negation5 Topics
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German-Modal Verbs4 Topics
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German-Separable Prefix Verbs4 Topics
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German-Coordinating Conjunctions4 Topics
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German-Konjunktiv I4 Topics
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German-Possessive Pronouns4 Topics
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German Question Words4 Topics
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German-Present Perfect of Regular Verbs4 Topics
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German-Present Perfect of Irregular Verbs4 Topics
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German-Present Perfect of Mixed Verbs4 Topics
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German-Dative Case5 Topics
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German-Two Way Prepositions4 Topics
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German-Dative Prepositions4 Topics
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German-Conditionals4 Topics
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German-Future Tense4 Topics
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German-Dative Verbs4 Topics
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German-Simple Past Tense4 Topics
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German-Imperative4 Topics
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German-Comparative4 Topics
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German-Temporal Prepositions4 Topics
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German-Present Perfect Separable Prefix Verbs4 Topics
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German-Irregular Verbs4 Topics
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German-Present Perfect Inseparable Prefix Verbs4 Topics
Participants 257
The dative case in German is one of the four German Cases and home of the indirect object, but it can also be used for indicating location. The indirect object is the noun that is affected in some way by the subject performing an action on another noun — in other words, this is often the “beneficiary” of the action.
Example: The mother gives her children the ice cream.
In the example, the children are the indirect object because they receive the ice cream (direct object) that is being given by the mother (subject). If the sentence were rewritten to make the ice cream the indirect object (The mother gives the ice cream her children), it would imply the ice cream is capable of eating the children. This becomes clearer in the first example when we consider that there is an implied preposition (“to”) that is often omitted both in English and German, and which would precede the indirect object (“to her children”). Here is the German equivalent of the example sentence:
Beispiel: Die Mutter gibt ihren Kindern das Eis.
In the German we see deletion of the preposition “zu” (“to”), as discussed above, but there is a difference with dative plural noun endings. In the dative case, plural nouns add an ‘n’ wherever possible; however, loan words and other plurals that add an ‘s’ cannot add an ‘n.’
Beispiel: Die Krankenpflegerin hört die Schreie von den Babys.
The dative case, like the accusative, has a set number of prepositions that are only dative: aus, außer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, and zu.
Further, the personal pronouns change from accusative to dative as seen in our German cases chart below: