German Dative Case: A Comprehensive Guide

Mastering the German dative case is no easy task. It’s not a question of just memorizing a couple of tables – there is so much more to dative. To truly understand how and when to use the case, you’ll need to learn about articles, verbs, prepositions, indirect objects, word order, and more.

While that may sound daunting, don’t panic just yet! Learning the German dative case might not be the easiest thing you’ll ever do, but it’s certainly not impossible. All you need is the right strategy and enough patience.

In this post, we’ll go over all the things you need to get started on your journey to master the dative.

What Is The German Dative Case?

The German language has 4 cases. These are:

1. Nominative (Nominativ)
2. Genitive (Genitiv)
3. Dative (Dativ)
4. Accusative (Akkusativ)

As you can see, the dative is the third German case. It’s also known as Wem-Fall (meaning whom-case). This is because, in German, you use the dative when you ask/answer questions beginning with Wem/Was? – for example:

• Wem gehört das Fahrrad? – To whom does this bike belong? (Whose bike is this?)
  • Das Fahrrad gehört mir. – The bike belongs to me.
• Wem hilfst du? – Whom are you helping?
  • Ich helfe dir. – I’m helping you.

If you’d like to learn more about what cases are and why you need them, check out our complete guide to German cases.

When To Use The German Dative Case

Before we jump into how to use dative and what the different forms of dative look like, it’s important you understand when to use the dative.

There are a couple of different circumstances that require the dative. These are:

Indirect object

The most common use of the German dative case is when you’re referring to an indirect object in a sentence. An indirect object is usually the noun or phrase that receives the direct object. For example:

• Ich gebe meiner Mutter Blumen. (I give flowers to my mother.)
  • Ich – subject
  • Blumen – direct object
  • meiner Mutter – indirect object
• Du gibst dem Kind das Buch. (You give the book to the child.)
  • Du – subject
  • das Buch – direct object
  • dem Kind – indirect object

Can you see how we use words in the dative case for the recipient of the direct object? You give the flowers to your mother – the mother is the recipient of the flowers.

Prepositions

As you may be aware, German prepositions can often be tricky. This is because you have to know which preposition is followed by which case.

There are a couple of prepositions that always take the dative. These are some of the most common ones:

• aus – out of, from
• bei – by, at
• gegenüber – opposite, towards
• mit – with
• nach – to, after, according to
• seit – for, since
• von – from, of
• zu – to, at, for

The bad news is that you will simply have to memorize these – there is no going around that. The good news is, however, that all these prepositions always take the German dative case. Once you’ve memorized them, you won’t have to think about any complex grammar rules. You’ll know to go straight for dative!

Location/position vs. direction

Unfortunately, not all prepositions take just one case. There are a handful of prepositions that can be paired with either dative or accusative, depending on the context. These are:

• an – on
• auf – on
• hinter – behind
• in – in
• neben – beside
• über – over, above, about
• unter – under
• vor – in front of, before
• zwischen – between, amongst

Often, these prepositions refer to a location/direction. When deciding whether to use dative or accusative, remember this simple rule:

• If you’re talking about location/position, use the dative.
• If you’re talking about direction, use the accusative.

For example:

• Dative: Ich bin in der Stadt. (I am in the city.)
• Accusative: Ich gehe in die Stadt. (I am going to the city.)

Remember to always use dative when you’re talking about the location/position (where/wo?). Use accusative when referring to direction/movement (where to/wohin?).

Verbs

Certain verbs always take the German dative case. Whenever you spot one of these verbs, you can stop thinking about indirect/direct objects and all the complex rules we’ve been over. These verbs always take a direct dative object, no matter what.

Here are some of the most common dative verbs:

• antworten – to answer
• danken – to thank
• einfallen – to occur, to think of
• fehlen – to be missing
• folgen – to follow
• gefallen – to like, to be pleasing to
• gehören – to belong to
• glauben – to believe
• gratulieren – to congratulate
• helfen – to help
• Leid tun – to be sorry
• passieren – to happen
• verzeihen – to forgive
• wehtun – to hurt

Let’s also look at some example sentences:

• Es tut mir Leid. (I am sorry.)
• Er glaubt seiner Freundin nicht. (He doesn’t believe his girlfriend.)
• Kannst du mir helfen? (Can you help me?)

There are, of course, more verbs that require the dative. To learn more about those, check out this amazing video by Herr Antrim:

Certain phrases

There are also some phrases in German that always use dative. Much like with most German grammar rules and exceptions, you will have to memorize these.

• Mir ist kalt. (I’m cold./It is cold to me.)

When describing how you’re feeling in German, you will often have to use the dative. In English, one might say, ‘I’m bored.’ But in German, you will have to say, ‘Mir ist langweilig.’ (It is boring to me.)

The same goes for other descriptive words, such as: warm (warm), schlecht (bad), gut (good), and so on.

• Ich wasche mir die Hände. (I am washing my hands.)

When you want to say that you’re having a wash in German, you might say, ‘Ich wasche mich.’ – in this case, you will have to use the accusative (mich, not mir – more on that later).

However, when you’re talking about washing a specific part of your body, such as your hands, you will have to adjust the original sentence.

In German, we don’t say, ‘I’m washing my hands.’ Rather, you will say, ‘I’m washing the hands to me/myself.’ This doesn’t make a lot of sense in English, but it’s the only correct way to say this phrase in German.

• Ich ziehe mir die Schuhe aus. (I’m taking off my shoes.)

This is similar to the hand-washing phrase. When talking about (un)dressing yourself in German, you will have to say, ‘I’m taking off the shoes to me/myself.’

German Dative Case: Articles

Now that we’ve covered when you use the dative, let’s take a look at how you form the German dative case. First, let’s start with articles.

Much like English, German has both definite and indefinite articles. These change form depending on which case they are in.

Notice also that possessives take the same form as indefinite articles.

Here is what forms definite articles take in the dative:

DEFINITE ARTICLES
	masculine	feminine	neuter	plural
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Genitive	des	der	des	der
Dative	dem	der	dem	den
Accusative	den	die	das	die

And for indefinite articles and possessives:

INDEFINITE ARTICLES
	masculine	feminine	neuter	Plural
Nominative	ein	eine	ein	meine
Genitive	eines	einer	eines	meiner
Dative	einem	einer	einem	meinen
Accusative	einen	eine	eines	meine

As you can see, the articles in dative are quite different from their nominative form. See the difference here:

• Nominative: Ich bin ein Mädchen. (I am a girl.)
• Dative: Ich helfe einer Mädchen. (I am helping a girl.)

Other example sentences in dative:

• Sie glaube ihrem Vater. (She believes her father.)
• Das Buch gehört dem Kind. (The book belongs to the child.)

German Dative Case: Other Determiners

Other than possessive determiners and articles, there are a couple of other “little words” that can often come in front of German nouns. These can often take different endings/forms than articles. If you want to speak German correctly, you will have to remember these.

Dieser

Dieser is the German equivalent of the English this. These are the endings that dieser takes:

DIESER
	masculine	feminine	neuter	plural
Nominative	dieser	diese	dieses	diese
Genitive	dieses	dieser	dieses	dieser
Dative	diesem	dieser	diesem	diesen
Accusative	diesen	diese	dieses	diese

As I said, many other determiners take different endings than your regular German articles. Usually, they follow the same pattern as dieser.

Here are some of the other determiners that take the same endings as dieser:

• alle (all)
• beide (both)
• einige (some)
• jeder (each, every)
• jener (that)
• mancher (some, many)
• mehrere (several)
• solcher (such)
• viele (much, many)
• welcher (which)
• wenige (few)

Example sentences in the German dative case:

• Ich helfe dieser Lehrerin. (I am helping this teacher.)
• Es gehört allen Kindern. (It belongs to all children.)

German Dative Case: Pronouns

Much like nouns change their articles in different cases, personal pronouns, too, change their forms. You might have previously encountered words like mir or dich – these are just your regular personal pronouns such as ich or du in cases other than nominative.

Here is what personal pronouns look like in dative:

PERSONAL PRONOUNS
	nominative	dative
I	ich	mir
you (singular)	du	dir
he	er	ihm
she	sie	ihr
it	es	ihm
we	wir	uns
you (plural)	ihr	euch
they	sie	ihnen
you (formal)	Sie	Ihnen

Example sentences in the German dative case:

• Das Buch gehört ihm. (The book belongs to him.)
  • er → ihm (he → him)
• Sie gibt mir ihre Nummer. (She gives me her number.)
  • ich → mir (I → me)

German Dative Case: Adjectives

Last, but not least, we have to take a look at German adjectives. If you’ve been learning German for some time now, chances are you’ve heard people complain about German adjective endings.

Like nouns, articles, and other determiners, adjectives, too, have different forms depending on context. The ending an adjective takes depends on the case, as well as on whether the adjective is preceded by an indefinite, definite, or no article.

Here are the different adjective endings:

ADJECTIVES AFTER A DEFINITE ARTICLE
	masculine	feminine	neuter	plural
Nominative	der gute Hund	die gute Katze	das gute Kind	die guten Kinder
Genitive	des guten Hundes	der guten Katze	des guten Kindes	der guten Kinder
Dative	dem guten Hund	der guten Katze	dem guten Kind	den guten Kindern
Accusative	den guten Hund	die gute Katze	das gute Kind	die guten Kinder

ADJECTIVES AFTER AN INDEFINITE ARTICLE
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	ein guter Hund	eine gute Katze	ein gutes Kind	meine guten Kinder
Genitive	eines guten Hundes	einer guten Katze	eines guten Kindes	meiner guten Kinder
Dative	einem guten Hund	einer guten Katze	einem guten Kind	meinen guten Kindern
Accusative	einen guten Hund	eine gute Katze	ein gutes Kind	meine guten Kinder

ADJECTIVES AFTER NO ARTICLE
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	guter Hund	gute Katze	gutes Kind	gute Kinder
Genitive	guten Hund	guter Katze	guten Kindes	guter Kinder
Dative	gutem Hund	guter Katze	gutem Kind	guten Kindern
Accusative	guten Hund	gute Katze	gutes Kind	gute Kinder

Example sentences in the German dative case:

• Du hilfst der netten Frau. (You help the kind woman.)
• Das Auto gehört einem reichen Mann. (The car belongs to a rich man.)

Note: If you’d like to learn more about adjective endings, check out our helpful guide.

Learn more

You’ve done it! These are all the basics you need to know about the German dative case. While you’re at it, why not check out some of our other grammar articles?

• Top Tips for German Conjugation Practice: How to Master German Verbs
• A Comprehensive Guide to German Question Words
• All You Need to Know about German Prepositions