I. Theory
The dative case is used to show the indirect object of the sentence. In English, indirect objects are usually separated from the verb acting on them by a preposition ‘I wrote to her’. The indirect object can also show to whom or for whom the verb is acting:| I gave the notes (direct) to you (indirect). He bought you (indirect) this gift (direct). |
In German, this case is shown through article declensions unlike in English where only prepositions or context are used to show the indirect object.
Examples:
| Hast du der Firma geschrieben? Did you write to the firm? Die Blumen gehören meiner Mutter. The flowers belong to my mother. Ich bringe dem Ober das Geld. I bring the waiter the money. |
II. Articles
As you can see from the charts below, all articles change from their nominative forms in the dative case. Make a note of ‘recycled’ endings that are used differently in each case: der (masculine nominative) vs. der (feminine dative) and den (masculine accusative) vs den (plural dative).Definite Articles
Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
Singular | dem | der | dem |
Plural | den | ||
Indefinite Articles/ Kein
Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
Singular | (k)einem | (k)einer | (k)einem |
Plural | (k)einen | ||
III. Dative Plural
In German, the dative plural is the only time where the noun is declined along with the article. If the plural noun does not already end with an -n, one must be added. The exception to this rule is nouns ending with -s in the plural. See the examples below:| Wir zeigen den Schülern den Film. We show the students the film. Ich beschreibe den Kindern die Hauptfigur der Geschichte. I describe the main character of the story to the children. Ich helfe den Kunden, die Deutsch sprechen. I help the clients who speak German. Sie telefonieren mit den Handys. They call with their cellphones. Das Lied gefällt den Babys nicht. The babies don’t like the song. |