Learning German - Working with the Nominative Case

While most western European nations have similar sentence structures, few of them are as regimental and complicated as German. Each grammatical case has its own conjugations. As someone starting from the English language, this is much harder than learning almost any other western European language.

It can certainly feel overwhelming, but the rigidity also means it is much easier to learn. The German language does not have a plethora of exceptions and variables like English. When there is a rule, it virtually always applies.

Let’s take a look at the four cases, then start delving into them. For now, we’ll focus on the Nominative case because it is the easiest of the cases to learn.

The Four German Cases

Most European countries work with the same case system, although the way cases are recognized is very different based on the language. For German, a case affects the sentence's articles, nouns, and pronouns. You can generally tell what a word’s role is based on the case.

For example, you can tell based on the article and the ending of a noun if a word is the subject or object of a sentence.

German has four cases:

1. Nominativ (Nominative) case – when something is in the nominativ case in German, it is the subject of the sentence – it is always the subject.
   Der Hunde jagte die Katze aus dem Haus. The dog chased the cat out of the house.
2. Akkusativ (Accusative) case – when a word is in the akkusativ case in German, it means the noun is the direct object of the verb or it is the object of an akkusativ preposition.
   Der Hunde jagte die Katze aus dem Haus. The dog chased the cat out of the house.
3. Dativ (Dative) case – when something is in the dativ case, that means it is an indirect object or it is the object of a dativ preposition.
   *Der Hunde jagte die Katze aus dem Haus. * The dog chased the cat out of the house.
4. Genitiv (Genitive) case – the genitive case indicates that something is a possession.
   Der Hunde jagte meine Katze aus dem Haus. The dog chased my cat out of the house.

Nearly everything associated with a noun changes based on its case. For pronouns, they change based on the case too, but usually it’s just the pronoun, not all of the articles and adjectives that are attached to the word.

A Quick Table of German Articles Based on Case

Articles tend to be the best indicator of what the case is. The following is a quick table that shows the correct version of each article based on the case.

Go ahead and bookmark this page – it can be invaluable for remembering what articles to use for a specific case.

Working with the Nominative Case

The nominative case is the easiest because you don’t have to change much. Both the article and the noun remain the same, so the only thing you may need to change are the adjectives Those will need to be changed to show the appropriate gender for the noun.

The nominative case almost always appears at the beginning of a sentence because it is the subject of the sentence.

Let’s take a look at the example sentence:

Der Hunde jagte die Katze aus dem Haus. The dog chased the cat out of the house.

Der Hunde is the subject because he is doing the action. He was chasing. If you strip down the sentence to its core, it is about a dog. The dog is doing the action – chasing. This is what makes it the nominative case.

You could make this substitute in the sentence, using the pronoun instead of the article and noun.

Er jagte die Katze aus dem Haus. He chased the cat out of the house.

Similarly, you can use the a article instead of the.

Ein Hunde jagte die Katze aus dem Haus. A dog chased the cat out of the house.

The biggest change occurs when you have an adjective. You can’t use just the adjective, just like you can just use a verb as you’ve memorized it for your vocabulary. The verb jagen has to be conjugated, you can’t use the infinitive version used in learning vocabulary words. Adjectives are similar – you have to change them based on the gender of the noun and the case.

For example, we can use the adjective jung to describe the dog.
Der junge Hunde jagte die Katze aus dem Haus. The young dog chased the cat out of the house.

When it is used as a vocabulary term or without a noun, you would use the word jung. When you use it to describe something – the young girl, the young tree, a young bird- you need to add the correct ending to the adjective jung.

For the nominative case, the ending to adjectives is the same for all but the plural nouns.

As the table shows, you just need to add -e to the end of the adjective to indicate the noun is the subject of the sentence. The only exception is for plural nouns, then you need to add -en to the adjective.

Making Time to Practice

The Nominativ case is the easiest case to learn because you don’t have to change much from what you’ve memorized. It’s also a critical part of every type of sentence except commands. Working with this case can help you get a level of comfort that you won’t get with the other three.

Make a habit of practicing writing or speaking 10 to 20 sentences a day, focusing on the nominiativ case. The practice sentences can be really short, just the subject and the verb. It’s a great way of practicing new vocabulary and grammar without feeling overwhelmed. You can gain confidence in the vocabulary without having to spend much time worrying about getting most of the grammar correct.