Germangrammarprepositions and postpositions wikibooks. In german, the genitive case is so important that most german dictionaries show the genitive form as well as the plural form of every entry for a noun. M anim nouns that consistent of a series of words follow a special pattern in the dative sg. However, this case isnt obsolete by any means, and so knowing how to identify and use this case is an essential part of your german language education. German has dative, accusative, genitive and twoway prepositions and postpositions. German cases accusative, dative, nominative and genitive. A genitive can also serve purposes indicating other relationships. A collection of english esl worksheets for home learning, online practice, distance learning and english classes to teach about genitive, genitive. The nominative case is the subject of the sentence the cat is small. But in general, although its true that you dont need to know the genitive as well as the other three cases, you cant yet and shouldnt try to avoid it entirely. Endings in the genitive case out of all four german cases, the genitive case has the most endings, both associated with words linked with the noun, and with the noun itself. Work with the genitive case in german herr wallace duration. The genitive is used more in written german and is hardly used in spoken language. The nominative case is used with the subject of the sentence.
Usually in english, we use the words to or for to indicate an indirect object. Genitive nouns feminine and plural nouns have no special genetive endings. Seriously, the genitive is the most difficult case of all in german. M anim nouns that consistent of a series of words follow a special pattern in.
While it is true that the genitive case is used less in spoken german, and its frequency even in formal, written german has declined over the last few decades, there are still many situations when mastery of the genitive is important. The first entry is from a paperback allgerman dictionary. Genitive and dative cases a foundation course in reading. English esl genitive worksheets most downloaded 31 results.
Especially for students with a lowbudget or those just looking for a good way to get started without breaking the bank, free online textbooks can be a good alternative. The reason the dative works is because in the structure i do something to somebodys will, the somebody would be in dative. Analysis of the genitive case presented here is drawn from the highly recommended book by laura janda and steven clancy, the case book for czech slavica publishers, 2006. English shows possession through the genitive case, which marks the noun in question with s or in a plural already ending in s with just the apostrophe. The m pl dative ending is um for both hard and soft stems. The genitive case in the genitive case in dutch and german. Russell block fk general studies university of applied sciences munchen. German cases, nominative, accusative, dative, genitive.
Translation for genitive case in the free englishgerman dictionary and many other german translations. The endings are the most complex,many nouns will carry endings and above all you never know if it is even idiomatic to use it. Learning german you are being taught that there are 4 german cases for nouns, the nominative, the genitive, dative and accusative. The german genitive case is used to either indicate possession, or ownership. Quenya has 2 cases that together form the traditional genitive case of an inflected language e. Twoway prepositions cause the adverbial expression to take the accusative case if the verb indicates an action or movement, and the dative case if the verb. Definition and examples of the genitive case in english. In the grammar of some languages, the genitive, or the genitive case, is a noun case. The german genitive case is the case that shows possession and is expressed in english by the possessive of or an apostrophe s.
The german genitive case is dying learn german language. The suffix s on nouns such as pronoun above is a marker of the genitive case in english. Not the most difficult when it comes to understanding the concept but the most difficult when it comes to putting it in practice. Sometimes it equals the genitive case, sometimes the nominative manchmal ist er namlich dem genitiv, manchmal dem nominativ gleich the origin of that name is unknown, although it is attested in the oldest germanic tongues, as old english clafre and old high german kleo genitive case. Dative sg endings for f nouns are the same at those for locative. The formation of the article in the genitive is fairly simple, as there are only two different endings es for masculine and neuter, er for feminine and plural. However, genitive case markers are used extensively in written german. In addition, german employs different cases to define and describe the noun, pronoun or adjective in the sentence. The genitive case in dutch and german a study of morphosyntactic change in codified languages series.
Translation for genitive case in the free english german dictionary and many other german translations. Each preposition causes the adverbial expression on which it acts to take the case of the preposition. Be sure that youdont use genitive with expressions of indefinite time governed by adverbs, such asmanchmal sometimes or with expressions of indefinite time that follow a preposition. Many prepositions take the genitive case, and these are also increasingly being used with the dative well cover this in section vi. This article is going to focus on the one most language learners come to fearthe dreaded dative. German grammar in english for international students version 2.
The dative case is also known as the indirect object. Like the nominative, accusative, and dative cases, the genitive case is marked by pronouns, articles and adjective endings. For nongermans, there are other genitive problems of more concern. M anim nouns, especially names, can take the hard ending ovi in the dative sg just as in the locative sg. The german genitive published on 01 jan 2014 by brill. The possessive pattern or mark s is generally used when indicating a relation of ownership or association with a person, rather than a thing. Linguistically speaking it is a form of genitive case. Genitive definition and meaning collins english dictionary. Although genitive isnt common anymore, its still used in several different, important contexts. More analytic details and examples are available in janda and clancys book. Ever wondered why we sometimes say whom instead of who. If you want to speak proper german, you have to really know your cases. More on the genitive case german for english speakers. In grammar, the genitive case abbreviated gen, also called the second case, is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a nounthus, indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun.
The genitive case can also be indicated by an of phrase after a noun. However, the genitive case is unusual in german because it adds an ending not only to the articles, but to masculine and neuter nouns as well. Other quantifying words trigger either genitive singular for mass nouns like water or plural for nouns that can be counted. In addition to affecting articles, pronouns, and adjectives, with masculine and neuter nouns, an aes or as ending is also added to the noun. Also, in addition to the nominative and accusative cases, german also has a dative case for indirect objects and a genitive case to indicate possession. What german learners need to know about the genitive case. Its not used as often as the other cases, but still has its own importance, because the genitive in german means possession, or in other words it means the expression of or s. German speakers can also use prepositions and frequently do so for spoken language. In the genitive, there is no distinction between a derword and an einword. The german genitive case is also used with the genitive prepositions and some verb idioms. In formal or scientific german you will sometimes encounter chains of genitivecase noun phrases which are straightforward to read, but can be awkward to translate into smooth english. Since feminine nouns in german dont have any genitive ending, a dash indicates no ending. The genitive case in english is commonly referred to as the. However it is also used by a bunch of prepositions, some of them not so much known to language learners.
These cases are the nominative, accusative, dative and genitive cases. For example, the german equivalent of someday and one day both take the genitive case. For example, some verbs may feature arguments in the genitive case. We also use the dative case after certain verbs and prepositions.
The genitive case is used to show possession, more often in writing than in speech. The subject is the person or thing performing the action of the verb the doer of the sentence. These endings replace the apostrophe s used in the english language even when referring to a person by name. The german cases explained in 5 steps i will teach you a. The accusative case is the direct object of it i wear the hat. Grammar explanation and some exercises to students practice the genitive case 6,600 downloads. How to overcome the dastardly german dative fluentu german. But german relies on the endings of the dative case. The possessive determiners my, your, his, hers, its, our, and theirs are sometimes regarded as genitive pronouns. If youd like to download the mp3s, please purchase german language tutorial. The second is from a large germanenglish dictionary.
German dative case learn about the dative case in german. English grammar possessive genitive case learn english. Section 1 definite articles in the genitive case i. The indirect object is the noun that receives something normally that something is the direct object, which is in the accusative case. German grammar in english for international students. However, in spoken german the genitive is often regarded as oldfashioned and too formal. In a nutshell, this case is used when describing possession or ownership. Feminine and plural nouns do not change in the genitive case. The endings are the most complex,many nouns will carry endings and above all you never know if. The dative case often replaces the genitive case in spoken german. The reason genitive works in czech is that the origin of the word literally means to the will of naturally followed by genitive. For proper nouns, german only adds an s to the noun, whereas english would add an apostrophe and an s.
However, the quenya genitive case doesnt cover all that is in the traditional genitive case, which instead are found in the possessive case, so to differentiate between when to appropriately use a genitive or possessive is key to learning. If the inline pdf is not rendering correctly, you can download the pdf file here. In german, not only do the personal pronouns have case, so do the adjectives and to a limited extent the nouns as well. The genitive case or p o ssessive case is used when the possessor is a living being, a group or an institution.