Questions tagged [grammatical-case]
grammatikalischer Fall – Questions relating to the grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive)
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Should one necessarily learn, when a verb goes with a dative object and when with accusative one?
Should one necessarily learn, when a verb goes with a dative object and when with an accusative one, or can it be deduced?
How to determine if a verb in question induces *accusative or dative? If ...
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4
answers
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Nominative or Accusative case "Sie ist meine Mutter"
In the phrase:
Sie ist meine Mutter.
'meine Mutter' is the nominative case although I don't understand why this is so since I naturally think that it should be the accusative case as it receives the ...
28
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"Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod": is German really losing Genitiv? (evolutionary viewpoint)
Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod is an interesting German phrase which originates this question. I’m interested in knowing how true is it/will it be.
Has German always had four cases? Or were some ...
5
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3
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Can you say "Ich wurde (etwas) gegeben"?
I wrote a quick email to my doctor yesterday and hastily wrote the sentence below.
"Nach der Untersuchung wurde ich eine CD mit den Befunden gegeben"
Then I was wondering, When you use ...
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Why is "den" used in "am Montag, den 10. August''?
This question also has an answer here (in German):
Am Samstag, dem/den
It's more logical to me to be "am Montag, dem 10. August" since without specifying Monday, I would say "am 10. August" ...
8
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2
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Welchen Fall benutzt man mit Phrasen wie "last year"?
Zum Beispiel im englischen Satz "Last year I visited Germany.", welchen Fall benutzt man?
Letztes Jahr habe ich Deutschland besucht.
Letztem Jahr habe ich Deutschland besucht.
Ich glaube ...
5
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1
answer
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Der Unterschied zwischen Dativ und Akkusativ bei Ortsangaben
Warum heißt es:
Ich sitze in der Schweiz.
aber
Ich gehe in die Schweiz.
und
Ich gehe in die Schule.
und
Ich gehe in der Schule.
24
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Accusative vs Dative: "Schau in der/die Schublade!"
What is correct? Q: "Wo sind meine Socken?"
A: "Schau in der Schublade" vs "Schau in die Schublade"
As a Swiss German speaker not very adept at proper German grammar I feel that both are somehow ...
11
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3
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Accusative or dative for verbs of movement
My doubt is with respect to this sentence (in perfect)
Er ist zum Büro gegangen.
My teacher taught me that we have to use the verb sein as helping verb whenever there is a movement. However, why ...
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Why Akkusativ in "dieses Jahr", "diesen Sommer"?
"Dieses Jahr", "diese Woche", "diesen Sommer" are all answers to the question "When?".
According to the rules one should use dative to answer (for example "diesER Woche"), however accusative is used. ...
5
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2
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Why do some German dictionaries list the genitive case ending?
I recently read that some German dictionaries list the genitive case ending for an entry but no explanation was given as to why some publishers choose to do this. Anyone happen to know?
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Why it is “Eines Tages” and not simply “ein Tag”?
In a story I read recently, there was a sentence:
Eines Tages fand Peter eine Schatzkarte!
And I wonder why it is eines Tages and not ein Tag, because ein Tag is what I would say normally. Is ...
23
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5
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Why is 'Guten Tag' accusative?
Is it just an idiom, or is it a general rule?
I'm wishing a good day to someone, so I guess there is some kind of metaphorical motion involved. Would it be similar if I wanted to say "vielen Spaß"?
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Why isn't "Ich danke dir" "Ich danke dich?"
I believe that in the sentence
Ich danke 'du/dir/dich'
that:
ich = subject
danke = verb
du = direct object.
Wouldn't that mean that it would be "Ich danke dich"? I hear people say "Ich ...
17
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Numbering cases
Sometimes I see a case referred to by number instead of by name. Now that's fine if there's an official, definite order. But while I see in tables mostly the order
Nominativ
Akkusativ
...