German dative A2: forms, functions and government
CEFR A2
What you will learn
- Recognise the pattern taught in “German dative A2: forms, functions and government” in a short example.
- Choose the appropriate form from “German dative A2: forms, functions and government” using explicit evidence.
- Apply and justify the rule from “German dative A2: forms, functions and government” in a new case.
The idea
The dative does not have one single meaning: it marks participants such as recipients or experiencers and is governed by certain verbs and prepositions; form depends on case, gender and number.
To choose correctly, separate function from form. In a transfer, the recipient is commonly dative and the transferred thing accusative: Die Kollegin zeigt dem Gast den Raum. This does not make every conceivable recipient dative; the verb and construction govern case. Some verbs govern a dative without an accusative object, including helfen, danken, gefallen, gehören, schmecken, antworten and passen. Learn the government with the verb.
Definite articles are dem (masculine), der (feminine), dem (neuter) and den (plural). The indefinite article has einem, einer, einem and no plural. kein and possessives follow the same pattern: keinem/keiner/keinem/keinen and meinem/meiner/meinem/meinen. A plural noun normally adds -n if it does not already end in -n or -s: mit den Gästen, but mit den Frauen and mit den Autos.
The prepositions aus, außer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von and zu govern the dative in their ordinary uses. Two-way prepositions are treated separately: they cannot be added to this list as if they always took the dative.
Keep all nine pronouns separate: ich→mir, du→dir, er→ihm, sie→ihr, es→ihm, wir→uns, ihr→euch, sie→ihnen, Sie→Ihnen. With two noun phrases, dative commonly precedes accusative; if one object is a pronoun, the pronoun tends to come first: Ich gebe es dem Nachbarn; Ich gebe ihm das Paket. Word order does not change the case assigned.
articulo definido dativo
| elemento | forma |
|---|---|
| masculino | dem |
| femenino | der |
| neutro | dem |
| plural | den + sustantivo en -n cuando procede |
serie ein en dativo
| elemento | forma |
|---|---|
| masculino | einem |
| femenino | einer |
| neutro | einem |
| plural | sin artículo indefinido |
kein y posesivo en dativo
| elemento | forma |
|---|---|
| masculino | keinem / meinem |
| femenino | keiner / meiner |
| neutro | keinem / meinem |
| plural | keinen / meinen + sustantivo en -n cuando procede |
pronombres nominativo a dativo
| elemento | forma |
|---|---|
| 1 | ich → mir |
| 2 | du → dir |
| 3 | er → ihm |
| 4 | sie (singular) → ihr |
| 5 | es → ihm |
| 6 | wir → uns |
| 7 | ihr → euch |
| 8 | sie (plural) → ihnen |
| 9 | Sie → Ihnen |
How it sounds
- Die Ärztin erklärt dem Patienten den Plan.The nominal recipient is dative; the thing explained is accusative.
- Seit einem Monat wohnt sie bei ihrer Tante.seit and bei govern dative; endings show gender and case.
- Der Mantel passt mir nicht.passen selects a dative participant.
Your turn
Two or three, to check that the bit above landed.
Die Suppe schmeckt ___ nicht. (wir)
uns — schmecken selects the experiencer in the dative here; the dative of wir is uns.
Lena kommt mit ___ Fahrrad. (ihr)
ihrem — mit governs the dative; Fahrrad is neuter, so possessive ihr takes -em.
Wir sprechen mit den ___. (Kollege, plural)
Kollegen — mit requires the plural dative. Kollegen already ends in -n, so no further ending is added.
When it doesn't hold
What breaks the rule, said out loud. Hiding it is what makes you feel cheated in the exam.
- Plurals that already end in -s never add the dative -n, with or without article.mit den Kindern, aber: mit den Autos
- danken takes the dative and allows no accusative in any variety of German.Ich danke dir.
- Some sensations are expressed with a dative and no subject: literally «to me is cold».Mir ist kalt.
What your own language pushes you to say
Wrong Ich gebe das Buch dem Kind zu.
Right Ich gebe dem Kind das Buch.
English marks the indirect object with «to» or by putting it first. German has no «to» here at all: the case does the whole job, so an extra preposition creeps in from nowhere.