A1 · The four cases
The nominative
the subject case
The one doing it — and the one the verb agrees with.
The nominative is the case a noun stands in when it is the subject: the one performing the action. It is also the form a dictionary gives you, so it is the case you already know without having learned it.
Two things make it worth a topic of its own. The first is that the verb agrees with the nominative and with nothing else, so finding the nominative is how you decide between ist and sind. The second is that three verbs — sein, werden, bleiben — take a nominative after them as well as in front, which is the one place a German sentence has two subjects-looking things and neither is an object.
English does the same thing with it is he, or used to; modern English says it is him and nobody minds. German minds. After sein the nominative is not a formal option but the only form.
Die Form
| masculine | der Mann / ein Mann |
| feminine | die Frau / eine Frau |
| neuter | das Kind / ein Kind |
| plural | die Leute / — Leute |
| question | Wer? Was? |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
The subject of the sentence is nominative, wherever in the sentence it stands.
Morgen kommt mein Bruder.My brother is coming tomorrow.
The verb ending agrees with the nominative and with nothing else.
Die Kinder spielen im Garten.The children are playing in the garden.
After sein, werden and bleiben the second noun is nominative too.
Mein Vater wird Lehrer.My father is becoming a teacher.
The indefinite article has no ending in the masculine and neuter nominative: ein, not einer or eines.
Ein Hund bellt.A dog is barking.
Genauer hingesehen
Why the subject need not come first
German main clauses put the conjugated verb second and let anything at all stand in front of it — the subject, a time, a place, an object. Morgen kommt mein Bruder is not inverted or poetic; it is the ordinary way to say it when the point is the timing.
This is only possible because the subject is marked. A language that lost its case endings could not afford it, which is why English says tomorrow my brother is coming and keeps the subject in front of the verb even after moving the time word. Word order and case endings are two ways of paying for the same information, and no language pays twice.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
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the sentence begins with es gibt
what follows is accusative, not nominative, even though English calls it the subject of "there is".
Es gibt einen Bahnhof im Ort.There is a station in the village.
German reads it literally: es is the subject and geben is a normal transitive verb, so what it gives is its object.
-
the verb is heißen
the name that follows is nominative, not accusative.
Der kleine Hund heißt Rex.The little dog is called Rex.
Like sein, it equates rather than acts: the dog and Rex are the same dog.
Woran man es erkennt
- wer
- was
- der
- die
- das
- ein
- eine
- sein
- werden
- bleiben
Beispielsätze
Der Zug fährt um acht.The train leaves at eight.
Meine Schwester ist Ärztin.My sister is a doctor.
Das war ein langer Tag.That was a long day.
Wer hat angerufen?Who called?
Im Garten spielen zwei Kinder.Two children are playing in the garden.
Noch 8 Beispielsätze
Ein Freund von mir wohnt in Wien.A friend of mine lives in Vienna.
Die Suppe ist zu salzig.The soup is too salty.
Bleibt der Laden am Sonntag geschlossen?Does the shop stay closed on Sundays?
Das Wetter wird besser.The weather is getting better.
Hier arbeitet meine Kollegin.My colleague works here.
Wer war das?Who was that?
Zwei Gäste haben abgesagt.Two guests have cancelled.
Das ist nicht mein Mantel.That is not my coat.
Besonderheiten (2)
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Professions drop the article
After <z>sein</z> and <z>werden</z> a profession, a nationality or a religion stands without an article: <z>Sie ist Ärztin</z>, not <z>eine Ärztin</z>. English requires the article and German forbids it, which makes this one of the few places where the literal translation is reliably wrong in a way that is easy to hear.
Er ist Österreicher und sie ist Lehrerin.He is Austrian and she is a teacher.
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The nominative is the form to learn a noun in
Learn <z>der Tisch</z>, not <z>Tisch</z>. The article is where every other case is built from, so a noun memorised without it has to be memorised again the first time it is not the subject. This is the single cheapest habit in German and it costs nothing at the start and a great deal later.
der Tisch, die Lampe, das Fensterthe table, the lamp, the window
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
After sein nothing is being acted on, so nothing is accusative. The mistake comes from a reasonable instinct — the noun is not the subject at the front, so it feels like an object — and the instinct is wrong: sein puts an equals sign between two nominatives. The same holds for werden and bleiben.
sein, werden, bleiben: nominative on both sides.
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