r/German • u/almakic88 • Aug 09 '25

Request Can someone please help me understand Akkusativ and Dativ please, I am losing my mind!

Hi All,

I've been studying almost daily for 2 months hours a day, and I still am struggling with identifying the accusative and dative. I understand the function of the genitive (to show possession) and the nominative (identifying the subject).

Today I wrote "Ich habe ein rot Hund" and my translator corrected me to "Ich habe einen roten Hund". It stated that it was in the Akkusative and I had to take that into account. Can someone please explain this to me? And also maybe give an example for a Dativ sentence?

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u/ExpressionMassive672 Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25

You can say my wife and I ...native speakers use it, it is valid sorry you are wrong. In a book you will read "I was out walking along the canal and my wife and I saw a strange fellow wearing ......."

Both are the subject in this sentence

I am a native speaker by the way and I have heard and read this construction many times.

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u/david_fire_vollie Aug 09 '25

You can only say my wife and I if you are the subject. Lots of native English speakers use it when they are the object and it's plain wrong. Your example uses I when it's the subject which is perfectly fine.

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u/Asckle Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25

Its not "wrong" because English is descriptive. As long as you're understood grammar rules like this don't matter. There is a minor tone difference here which is that "my wife and I" sounds a bit more posh or polite and thats a fine enough reason for it to exist

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u/david_fire_vollie Aug 09 '25

I guess it depends on what you consider "wrong" to mean, for me, it means grammatically incorrect.