In which case (= casus) is a word or part of a sentence? What do prepositions have to do with cases? And how can you combine parts of sentences and whole sentences? Questions upon questions that often lead to grammatical errors for German learners. But there’s no need to worry. Today we’ll give you a few answers to these questions so that you can avoid typical mistakes when learning German in the future.

1. The chaos with the four cases – what was that again?

If you are currently learning German, the four cases – nominative, accusative, dative and genitive – can be a real challenge, which is why they also lead to many typical mistakes. Nouns, pronouns, adjectives and articles must always be in the correct case so that sentences in German don’t sound incomprehensible.

Each case has a specific meaningful task in the respective sentence and can be correctly assigned using a separate control question. So let’s take a closer look at this:

Nominative

The nominative refers to the subject, that is what performs the action. In this case you can use the control question “Wer oder Was?“ (= Who or what?)

• German example: “Der Hund läuft.”
• English example: “The dog runs.”

Accusative

The accusative then shows the direct object, that is what the action is directed towards. For the direct object, you ask:  “Wen oder Was?” (= Who or what?)

• German example: “Ich kaufe den Hund.“
• English example: “I buy the dog.”

Dative

The dative is used for the indirect object, that is the object which benefits from or is affected by the action. The corresponding control question is: “Wem?” (= To whom?)

• German example: “Ich gebe dem Hund einen Ball.“
• English example: “I’ll give the dog a ball.”

Be careful, there is a small stumbling block here that can quickly lead to errors when forming plurals. When we use the dative case in the plural, we need the article “den” instead of “die” and in the noun we need the ending “-n”. For instance, we use “die Hunde” (= plural of “der Hund”) in the dative plural as follows:

• German example: “Ich gebe den Hunden einen Ball.“
• English example: “I give the dogs a ball.”

Genitive

The genitive shows possession or belonging and is checked with the question “Wessen?” (= Whose?). Even in the singular, we have to be precise with the genitive! It is not enough to use the correct article. Furthermore you have to pay attention to the ending, since masculine and neutral nouns need the ending “s” or “es”.

• German example: “Das Spielzeug des Hundes ist neu.“
• English example: “The dog’s toy is new.”

We also have to be careful when forming plurals. If we use the genitive in the plural, we need the article “der” instead of “die”, as in:

• German example: “Das Fell der Hunde ist weich.“
• English example: “The dogs’ fur is soft.”

2. Typical mistakes when learning German with prepositions

It is important to know that prepositions in German always require a specific case (accusative, dative or genitive). For instance, “mit” always requires the dative case, “mit dem Freund” (= with the friend), while “für” only requires the accusative case: “für den Freund” (= for the friend).

Please note: With some prepositions that we use very frequently, such as “in”, we even have to choose between the accusative and dative. The question “Wo oder Wohin?” (= Where or where to?) helps us to decide on the correct case.

• When asked “Where?”, we use the dative case, like: “Ich bin in der Schule.” (= “I am at school.”)
• For the question “Where to?” it must be the accusative: “Ich gehe in die Schule.” (= “I am going to school.”)

One of the prepositions that is preferably used with the genitive is “wegen”. In everyday life, many people say “wegen dem Regen” because the dative case is also possible. However in a written text, German professionals will opt for the elegant and correct “wegen des Regens” (= because of the rain).

Our tip: When learning German, take yourself enough time to memorize the prepositions and their corresponding cases. Then you can avoid mistakes in the future! The right questions and example sentences can help you to memorize the rules. 💡

3. The art of joining – conjunctions in German

Another typical mistake when learning German is not joining sentences together correctly. Words such as “und”, “oder” and “aber” play a central role here. These so-called subordinating conjunctions are important language elements that help us to structure what is said or spoken. For instance, we can use subordinating conjunctions to link two independent main clauses.

Important: As two independent clauses are connected, the sentence position of the individual main clauses remains as usual: subject in position 1, verb in position 2 and then the object.

Even if you combine two decision questions, the sentence order in the individual question sentences does not change: verb in position 1, subject in position 2.

When learning German, memorize from the start that a subordinating conjunction does not change the sentence order in the connected sentences. Our examples show you how to use three common subordinating conjunctions correctly.

“Und” connects similar or related information:

• German example: “Ich esse einen Apfel und ich trinke Wasser.”
• English example: “I eat an apple and drink water.”

“Oder” indicates a choice:

• German example: “Fahren wir morgen in die Berge oder gehen wir in die Stadt?”
• English example: “Are we going to the mountains tomorrow or are we going to the city?”

“Aber” expresses a contrast:

• German example: “Es ist kalt, aber die Sonne scheint.”
• English example: “It is cold, but the sun is shining.”

Enhance your german and explore our introductory article about typical mistakes.