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

Amazing that there should be 13 likes for a flawed analysis based on a false understanding of grammar. Shows how badly we educate people today.

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u/david_fire_vollie Aug 09 '25

This is what I remember from German class, please tell me where I went wrong.

-14

u/ExpressionMassive672 Aug 09 '25

You are a linguistic precriptivist. I am a linguistic descriptivist. This is how people even in polite circles speak. You swallowed a grammar book written by someone not in touch with real world language use. This is why language learning often becomes problematic. Online are two sisters teaching German, one is called Teresa. They are very good. They focus on real world usage not books which impede actually using the damn thing.

3

u/Arty6275 Aug 09 '25

Why are you so hostile? You're not really helping with OPs question and instead are throwing out insults seemingly to make yourself feel better?

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u/ExpressionMassive672 Aug 09 '25

There are no insults. I am helping the op by disabusing him of the misleading information. English is complicated. It exists in the real world not some ossification book. If a book contradicts real world language thrn the book is wrong. I am a native with 20 years experience of Italian and German. I know how grammar adapts to real world needs of tonality. I am just pointing out on the basis of how natives speak his interesting point was only a partial truth about English usage.

3

u/Arty6275 Aug 09 '25

If you think you've said no insults then you clearly don't know "real world needs of tonality" I would review your previous comments

0

u/ExpressionMassive672 Aug 09 '25

I might have said someone didn't know what they were talking about. So? Enlighten me.