About Case

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The case taken by a noun gives more information about the function of a noun in a sentence. There are four different cases.

Nominative
The case of a noun that is the subject of the sentence - the person or thing performing the action described by the verb. In the sentence

    Der Hund biss den Mann   (The dog bit the man)

the noun "Hund" takes the nominative case.

Accusative
The case of a noun that is the direct object of the sentence - the thing that is having the action described by the verb done to it. In the example sentence the noun "Mann" takes the accusative case. Note that the word for "the" is different for "the dog" and "the man" even though "dog" and "man" are both masculine in German.

Genitive
Usually the case of a noun denoting ownership. In the sentence

    Der Hund biss das Bein des Mannes (The dog bit the leg of the man)

The noun "Mann" takes the genitive case, while the noun "Bein", the direct object of the sentence, takes the accusative case. Note that in the genitive case and masculine gender an additional "es" is added to the end of the noun, unless the noun already ends with an "s".

Dative
Most often the case of a noun that is the indirect object of a sentence that also contains a direct object. In the sentence

    Der Mann gab dem Hund einen Keks  (The man gave the dog a biscuit)

the noun "Hund" takes the dative case because the biscuit is the direct object (it is the thing being given) while the dog is the indirect object of the sentence.

Case and Prepositions
Of course, it's not as simple as that. The case taken by a noun can also be determined by its preposition - a small word, such as "in", "on", "at" and "under", that joins the noun to the rest of the sentence. Actually this is a good thing because the preposition will always determine the case taken by the noun. There's no need to worry who is doing what to whom. Even better, prepositions never trigger the nominative and prepositions that trigger the genitive are rare. If nothing else, if you are taking a guess as to which case to use, at least the chances of getting it right are doubled.

The only complicating factor is that one group of prepositions can trigger the dative if they express position or the accusative if they express movement.

Click on this link to see the case triggered by common prepositions.

The Basic Calculator only has the option to select the case. The Advanced Calculator has the added option of case determination by selecting a preposition from a list (including movement where appropriate).