When to use the Dative Case?
David Sarmiento published
almost 5 years ago
I'm kinda new to German cases and I quite adept the usage of der Nominativ und der Akkusativ. I'm struggling of the usage of the Genitive like "du" vs "dir" when to use the Genitive case?
Davi published
almost 5 years ago
Hi. Let me clear it out 😀
German cases have a base function based on the question they answer to so to say, and the other one based on the preposition.
Nominative = Who/What does the action?
Accusative = Who/What receives the action?
Dative = To who / To what goes the action?
Genitive = Of who / Of what?
That's the base function but depending on the preposition, the case will change. Most prepositions requires the dative, some the accusative and a few the genitive (you have to memorize them). Some, though, especially the ones that describe a movement and / or a position, can be both an accusative or dative depending on their role in the sentence, namely depending on whether we are taking about a movement or a position.
In + Position = Dative
In + Movement = Accusative
I hope it helped.