Confused Student: Wait.
Feminine nouns use the article “der”?
What is “dem”?
And why is there an N at the end of the word “Kinder”?
Herr Antrim: That’s dative.
It’s like nominative and accusative on steroids.
The dative case is used with indirect objects, dative prepositions, dative verbs, and certain
phrases.
Confused Student: Sounds complicated.
Herr Antrim: Lots of people think that, but it doesn’t have to be.
Over the next several lessons I will teach you all of the things you need to know about
the dative case.
Today we will tackle the dative case as it is used with indirect objects.
This includes definite and indefinite articles (der-words and ein-words).
In the next video I’ll explain how to use dative pronouns.
In the following videos I will show you the other uses of the dative case including dative
prepositions, dative verbs and a variety of dative phrases.
Confused Student: Alright, get on with it.
I’ll let you know if you were successful at the end.
Der Mann gibt deiner Mutter Blumen.
Der Mann gibt deiner Mutter eine Halskette.
Der Mann gibt deiner Mutter einen Kuss.
Dein Vater verpasst dem Mann ein blaues Auge.
In the first three examples, your mom is the indirect object.
Confused Student: Haha.
Your mom’s an indirect object.
Student 2: Got ‘em.
(high five’s the other student)
Confused Student: What’s an indirect object?
Herr Antrim: So, if you don’t already know, the nominative case is used for the subject
of the sentence.
That’s the person or thing that is doing something in the sentence.
This is also the person or thing that decides how the verb needs to be conjugated.
The accusative case is used with direct objects.
These are the things or people that are being acted upon by the subject of the sentence.
If you buy something, that something is the direct object and in German that’s accusative.
If the direct object goes in the direction of someone or something, that someone or something
is an indirect object.
The indirect object receives the direct object.
The indirect object in German uses the dative case.
You have probably seen a chart that looks something like this before.
What I consider the baseline for all cases is the nominative case.
Words for “the” are called definite articles.
The only change between nominative and accusative articles occurs with masculine nouns.
“der” becomes “den”.
When we get to the dative case, everything changes.
“die” becomes “der”, “der” and “das” become “dem” and the plural
“die” becomes “den”.
Masculine Feminine
Neuter Plural
Nominative der
die das
die Accusative
den die
das die
Dative dem
der dem
den (n)
Confused Student: So feminine is now masculine, masculine and neuter have merged into one
super gender and the plural has become the masculine accusative?
Herr Antrim: No.
That’s not at all what is going on here.
The genders of nouns, while represented by the article are not the articles themselves.
The gender of the noun is determined by the noun itself.
The article that is put in front of that noun is determined by the gender and the way in
which it is used.
Don’t think “der” means it is masculine, but rather masculine nouns when used as the
subject of the sentence, are represented with the word “der”.
When that same noun is used as the direct object, it is represented by “den”.
Then when it is used as an indirect object, it is represented with “dem”.
Trust me, this is a lot easier for your brain to handle than thinking up some convoluted
way of remembering whatever that gender bender thing you were trying to do was.
Let’s try an example to start this off.
We will use “der Mann” to keep things simple.
Again, I don’t say “der Mann” to say it is always “der”, but rather as the
starting point for the way the articles change from here on out with the word “Mann”.
Der Mann geht ins Lebensmittelgeschäft.
- The man goes (is going) into the grocery store.
The man is the one doing something in the sentence, which makes him the subject and
therefore nominative.
Dein Vater schlägt den Mann.
- Your father hits the man.
Your father is the one doing something in this sentence, which makes him the subject
and nominative.
The man is now on the receiving end of the action, i.e. the verb “schlagen” (to hit).
In other words, the man is being hit.
This makes him the direct object and therefore accusative.
Dein Vater verpasst dem Mann ein blaues Auge.
- Your father gives the man a black eye.
Your father is still the subject, as he is still the one doing something.
The action, however, is transferred to “ein blaues Auge” (a black eye).
That makes the eye the direct object and therefore accusative.
Let me know in the comments if you know why the Germans give a blue eye, while the English
speakers give a black eye.
The one receiving the direct object is the man.
This means he is indirectly being acted upon by your father through the direct object.
This is why we call it the indirect object and it takes the dative case.
Now, throughout all of those examples, we had the same noun, “Mann”.
It went from “der” in the first one to “den” and “dem”.
The gender of the noun didn’t change.
The article preceding it did.
Confused Student: Can all sentences have an indirect object?
Herr Antrim: No.
Not all verbs have the ability to take indirect objects.
This is due to the action that the verb expresses.
Obviously you can buy or sell someone something, give them it, or send them it, but you can’t
be them something or go them something.
Confused Student: Cool.
Cool.
I think I have it, but just in case, can I see a few more examples?
Hopefully with a bit more variety than what you have done so far.
Herr Antrim bringt dem Doktor Deutsch bei. - Herr Antrim is teaching the doctor German.
The word for “timey-wimey stuff” in German is “schnibbedi-schnick wibbelig-wabbeliges
Zeugs”.
Bet you can’t say that 3 times fast.
https://youtu.be/_29prP0v37c?t=91
Confused Student: Hmm.
I figured you would be more of a Matt Smith kind of guy, what with the bow ties and such.
Herr Antrim: Stylistically speaking, I like Matt Smith’s Doctor, because bow ties are
cool, but acting and storytelling-wise I prefer David Tennant.
Herr Antrim erzählt der Prinzessin ein Märchen.
- Herr Antrim tells the princess a fairy tale.
Der Makler zeigt der Kundin das Haus.
- The realtor shows the customer the house.
“Das ist das Wohnzimmer.
- This is the living room.”
Der Kellner bringt dem Mädchen ein Eis.
- The waiter brings the girl an ice cream.
Der Lehrer stellt dem Schüler eine Frage.
- The teacher asks the student a question.
Confused Student: Why didn’t you use the verb “fragen” in that sentence?
Herr Antrim: dem Schüler eine Frage fragen?
Das ist ein bisschen doppelt gemoppelt.
- That’s a bit redundant.
Die Lehrerin gibt den Schülern eine Hausarbeit auf.
- The teacher assigns the students a term paper.
Confused Student: Halt!
Stopp!
Where did the N at the end of “Schüler” come from?
The word “Schüler” is already plural.
You don’t have to double pluralize it do you?
Herr Antrim: Haha.
No.
That N is there to indicate the plural dative.
Most of the time this will happen.
If the noun already ends with N or it ends with S, you don’t add the N to the end in
the dative case.
Meine Schwester sagt dem Polizisten die Wahrheit.
- My sister tells the police officer the truth.
Confused Student: WAIT!
Why did “Polizist” suddenly get an extra two letters?
I understand that the plural of “Polizist” is “Polizisten”, but you just said “dem
Polizisten”, which means it is masculine and not plural.
What’s up with that?
Herr Antrim: Have you heard of “weak nouns” before?
These are certain nouns that simply take -n or -en when they are used in any case that
isn’t nominative.
“Polizist” is on that list.
If you want a better list of them, I have that built into my accusative, dative and
genitive case master classes, which you can find linked in the description.
For a few more examples, however, here are a few popular ones.
der Neffe - Neffen, der Held - Helden, der Herr - Herrn, der Name - Namen and a bunch
more.
Confused Student: Are they all masculine?
Herr Antrim: Yep.
Confused Student: Well, at least that part is simple.
I get the der-words now.
What happens with the ein-words?
Herr Antrim: The dative case is the first case that uses the same endings for all of
the indefinite articles as the definite articles.
By that I mean that the masculine and neuter endings are -m, feminine is -r and plural
is -n.
Masculine Feminine
Neuter Plural
Nominative ein
eine ein
(k)eine Accusative
einen eine
ein (k)eine
Dative einem
einer einem
(k)einen (n)
Der Richter schickt einer Zeugin eine Vorladung.
- The judge sends (is sending) a witness a subpoena.
Der Experte kocht einem Spion ein Ei.
- The expert cooks (is cooking) a spy an egg.
Laura leiht meinem Vater den Hut.
- Laura loans my father the hat.
Meine Kinder erzählen einem Mädchen Witze.
- My children tell a girl jokes.
Sophia schreibt ihren Großeltern Briefe.
- Sophia writes her grandparents letters.
Confused Student: I think I’m starting to get the hang of this.
Is there anything else I should know?
Herr Antrim: Just a quick reminder.
Don’t forget that there are other words that act like definite articles.
By that I mean they use the same endings.
Things like “dieser”, “jeder” and “welche”.
For example: Meine Mutter gibt jedem Kind ein Stück Schokolade.
- My mother gives every child a piece of chocolate.
Der Mann verkauft dieser Frau eine Halskette.
- The man is selling this woman a necklace.
Also, the possessive articles such as “mein”, “dein” and so on, use the same endings
as the indefinite articles and the negative word “kein” follows the same pattern.
For example: Mein Bruder kauft unserem Vater einen Golfschläger.
- My brother is buying our father a golf club.
Seine Freundin schenkt ihrer Tochter ein Fahrrad.
- His girlfriend is giving her daughter a bicycle.
Confused Student: Great.
I think I’m good for today.
Herr Antrim: Yep.
Now you just have to learn about dative pronouns, prepositions, verbs, special phrases and then
the genitive case with possession, genitive prepositions… *fade to end screen*
As I mentioned at the beginning of the video, this is the first of several lessons about
the dative case.
Next week I’ll explain how to use the dative pronouns again focusing on indirect objects.
If you are watching this video after the other videos in this series are completed, you can
find those linked in the description and also right there.
Das ist alles für heute.
Danke fürs Zuschauen.
Bis zum nächsten Mal.
Tschüss.