2.12 Case marking on the noun
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GENITIVE
links nouns, especially to show possession (see 8.6)
Der Ton des Radios ist furchtbar. The sound of the radio is awful.
after a few prepositions (see 5.4)
Sie lief trotz ihres hohen Alters schnell. She ran fast despite her advanced age.
DATIVE
marks the indirect object of the verb (see 8.3)
Ich gebe dem Hamster sein Futter. I’m giving the hamster its food.
marks the sole (dative) object of some verbs (see 8.3)
Sie will ihrem Freund helfen. She wants to help her friend.
can show possession, esp. with clothing and parts of the body (see 8.4)
Sie zogen dem Verletzten die Hose aus. They took the injured man’s trousers off.
after some prepositions (see 5.2–5.3)
Wir suchten überall nach dem Geld. We looked everywhere for the money.
with many adjectives (see 4.4)
Dieses Gespräch war mir sehr unangenehm. This conversation was very unpleasant for me.
2.12 Case marking on the noun The four cases are marked through endings in the noun phrase. In practice, it is the endings of the ARTICLES, DETERMINERS and ADJECTIVES (chapters 3 and 4) which indicate case most clearly, but sometimes there are endings on the noun to show case, too. Regular nouns have the following forms in the four cases:
nom. acc. gen. dat.
masculine singular plural
feminine singular plural
neuter singular plural
der Vater den Vater des Vaters dem Vater
die Frau die Frau der Frau der Frau
das Kind das Kind des Kindes dem Kind
die Väter die Väter der Väter den Vätern
die Frauen die Frauen der Frauen den Frauen
As the table shows, there are two special case endings with regular nouns:
Masculine and neuter nouns add -(e)s in the genitive singular. All nouns add -n in the dative plural (unless the plural ends in -n or -s).
die Kinder die Kinder der Kinder den Kindern
