German Cases & Articles
Der/die/das and ein declined across the four German cases.
Rows are the four cases; columns are the genders. Tap any article to copy it.
| Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominativesubject | ||||
| Accusativedirect object | ||||
| Dativeindirect object | ||||
| Genitivepossession |
German has four cases — nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive — that mark a noun’s role in the sentence. The case rarely changes the noun itself; it changes the article and adjective in front of it. So der Mann (subject) becomes den Mann as a direct object and dem Mann as an indirect object.
What the four cases do
Where English relies on word order, German relies on case. Each case answers a different grammatical question: the nominative names the subject (who is doing the action), the accusative marks the direct object (what receives it), the dative marks the indirect object (to or for whom), and the genitive shows possession (whose). Because the case is signalled mainly by the article, the same noun can appear with a different word in front of it depending on its job in the sentence.
Reading the tables
In the interactive tables above, each row is a case and each column is a gender — masculine, feminine, neuter, and, for the definite article, plural. Pick “Definite” for der/die/das and “Indefinite” for ein. The definite article is used for a specific, known noun (“the book”); the indefinite article introduces a non-specific one (“a book”) and has no plural form.
Definite article (der/die/das) by case and gender
Rows are cases; columns are genders. Note the dative plural den and the genitive des for masculine and neuter.
| Case | Role | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | subject | der | die | das | die |
| Accusative | direct object | den | die | das | die |
| Dative | indirect object | dem | der | dem | den |
| Genitive | possession | des | der | des | der |
Indefinite article (ein) by case and gender
The indefinite article has no plural; German drops the article (or uses kein) before plural nouns.
| Case | Role | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | subject | ein | eine | ein |
| Accusative | direct object | einen | eine | ein |
| Dative | indirect object | einem | einer | einem |
| Genitive | possession | eines | einer | eines |
Personal pronouns decline for case too, and they do it in their own forms rather than through a preceding article. The nominative names the subject (ich, du, er), the accusative marks the direct object (mich, dich, ihn), and the dative marks the indirect object (mir, dir, ihm). Their genitive forms are archaic, so the pronoun table below covers only the three cases in everyday use.
Personal pronouns by case
Rows are the pronouns (with English gloss); columns are the three cases they inflect for. The genitive of personal pronouns is archaic and omitted.
| Pronoun | English | Nominative | Accusative | Dative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ich | I | ich | mich | mir |
| du | you (informal) | du | dich | dir |
| er | he | er | ihn | ihm |
| sie | she | sie | sie | ihr |
| es | it | es | es | ihm |
| wir | we | wir | uns | uns |
| ihr | you (pl) | ihr | euch | euch |
| sie | they | sie | sie | ihnen |
| Sie | you (formal) | Sie | Sie | Ihnen |
The role of each case
The question each case answers tells you which one a noun needs.
| Case | Grammatical role | Asks |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Subject | Who or what is doing the action? |
| Accusative | Direct object | Who or what receives the action? |
| Dative | Indirect object | To or for whom is it done? |
| Genitive | Possession | Whose is it? |
Where the case actually shows up
Case is carried by the article and the adjective, not usually by the noun. Der Hund, den Hund, and dem Hund are all the same noun; only the article moves. There are two notable exceptions on the noun itself: the dative plural adds an -n where the plural does not already end in one (die Kinder → mit den Kindern), and many masculine and neuter nouns take an -s or -es in the genitive singular (des Mannes).
Masculine changes the most
Scan the columns and you will see the masculine forms shift in every case (der → den → dem → des), while the feminine and neuter columns repeat their nominative form in the accusative. That makes the masculine article the most reliable signal of case — and the one most worth memorising first.