German/Appendices/Grammar I

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Der-word Case for German Nouns

Gender	Nominativ	Genitiv	Dativ	Akkusativ
	Case
masculine	der	des	dem	den
feminine	die	der	der	die
neuter	das	des	dem	das
plural*	die	der	den	die

* The same regardless of singular noun gender

Personal Pronoun Tables: nominative, genitive, dative & accusative cases

Nominative case personal pronouns

The nominative case is used as the subject of a verb.

	Singular		Plural
1st person	ich	I	wir	we
2nd person	du (Sie*)	you	ihr (Sie*)	you
3rd person	er, sie, es	he, she, it	sie	they

*Polite form.

Genitive case personal pronouns

The genitive case corresponds to the possessive case in English or to the English objective case preceded by 'of' and denoting possession. The use of genitive personal pronouns is very rare in German and many Germans are unable to use them correctly.

	Singular		Plural
1st person	meiner	my	unser	our
2nd person	deiner (Ihrer*)	your	eurer (Ihrer*)	your
3rd person	seiner, ihrer, seiner	his, her, its	ihrer	their

*Polite form.

Examples:

Ich erbarme mich eurer. ~ I take pity on you(rs).

meiner unbedeutenden Meinung nach. ~ in my humble opinion (IMHO)

Dative case personal pronouns

The personal pronouns in the dative case are used as indirect objects of verbs and after the prepositions aus, außer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu.

	Singular		Plural
1st person	mir	me	uns	us
2nd person	dir (Ihnen*)	you	euch (Ihnen*)	you
3rd person	ihm, ihr, ihm	him, her, it	ihnen	them

*Polite form.

Accusative case personal pronouns

The personal pronouns in the accusative case are used as direct objects of transitve verbs and after the prepositions durch, für, gegen, ohne, um.

	Singular		Plural
1st person	mich	me	uns	us
2nd person	dich (Sie*)	you	euch (Sie*)	you
3rd person	ihn, sie, es	him, her, it	sie	them

* Polite form.