Intermediate German: A Grammar and Workbook

Other adjectives which are often used with the dative are: bekannt

‘known’, fremd ‘strange’, böse ‘angry’, dankbar ‘grateful’, gefährlich

‘dangerous’,schwer‘heavy’/‘difficult’.

Dative case endings

Here is an overview of the most common determiners in the dative:

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural

Definite art. dem Mann der Tochter dem Kind den Kindern

Demonstr. diesem Mann dieser Tochter diesem Kind diesen Kindern

Indefinite art. einem Mann einer Tochter einem Kind – Kindern

Possess. meinemMann meinerTochter meinemKind meinenKindern

Typical endings for determiners in the dative are:

-em with masculine and neuter nouns

-er with feminine nouns and

-en with nouns in the plural.

Don’t forget to add an extra -(e)nto the plural form of the noun itself

whenever this is possible.

The genitive case

Indicating possession

The genitive case refers to the idea of possession or belonging, corres-

ponding to the English apostrophe s(’s) ending or the prepositionof:

Das Auto meinesVaterssteht dort drüben.

My father’s car is over there.

Wir beginnen mit dem schwierigsten Teil derÜbersetzung.

We begin with the most difficult part of the translation.

A useful way of recognising the genitive in a sentence is to ask :

Whose... is it/are they?

→My father’s.

Unit 4: Cases 29

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