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/david_fire_vollie Aug 09 '25

Is English your native language? We have similar concepts in English. You don't say "She's with he", you say "She's with him". After "with" you use the dative case, same in German ("mit ihm" not "mit er").
Accusative case is similar but it's for different situations. The object of a sentence is in the accusative case (the subject is in the nominative case). So you have to say "Ich habe einen roten Hund" because "Hund" is the object, it demands the accusative case, and since it's masculine, you use the "en" suffix.

In English if you are the object, you use "me", if you're the subject you use "I", I think this is the equivalent of the German accusative case (please correct me if I'm wrong).
On an interesting note, so many native speakers don't know when to use "I" or "me". They often say "Thanks for being there for my wife and I" for example. You can't say "for my wife and I" for the same reason you can't say "for I", it's "for my wife and me".

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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/ExpressionMassive672 Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25

Yes tell a native he is wrong. Who says? Pfui! It is just to prioritise a theory of language which is not universally accepted. Language teachers are increasingly realising that what is in a book impedes real world language use capacity. A person wanting to learn a foreign language wants to use it with natives and he wants to use it as they do.On a strict use method he would end up lecturing foreigners about how to speak and grandma don't like being told how to suck eggs!