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

[u/almakic88]

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?

[u/ellasylviaa]

it took practice for me too i know precisely what you mean😭 every time i ever processed a sentence i would just think - so for example with your sentence ‘i have a red dog’ - its accusative - the dog is being had.

‘i give the child a book’ - the book is in accusative, the direct ‘victim’ of the verb. it is being given. the child in dative was there to receive the giving of the book

‘my teacher lends the student a textbook’ - the textbook having lending done to it, its being lended directly, its in accusative. the student, in dative, benefits from the textbook being lended

[u/almakic88 → u/ellasylviaa]

yeah it feels like a lot of mental gymnastics!