| SINGULAR | Nominative | Accusative | Dative |
| 1st Person | ich | mich | mir |
| 2nd Person | du | dich | dir |
| 3rd Person (he, she, it) | er, sie, es | ihn, sie, es | ihm, ihr, ihm |
| PLURAL | |||
| 1st Person | wir | uns | uns |
| 2nd Person | ihr | euch | euch |
| 3rd Person | sie | sie | ihnen |
| formal (plural or singular) | Sie | Sie | Ihnen |
That wasn't so bad, now was it? If you are confused about the headings of nominative, accusative and dative, those will be explained now. The nominative case serves as the subject of the verb in a sentence or a predicate noun after sein or werden. The accusative is a direct object of the verb, an expression of time or object of certain prepositions. The dative case is used for indirect objects, the object of certain verbs, adjectives and prepositions (these will be listed later). Now you're ready for the next step, definite and indefinite articles. The funny thing about this is that English has only one definite article; the. German has six. I am in no way claiming that this is easy. If, however, you really want to learn the language, this is one thing that really has to be memorized.
Definite Articles
| SINGULAR | PLURAL | |||
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| Nominative | der | die | das | die |
| Dative | den | die | das | die |
| Accusative | dem | dem | dem | den |
Indefinite articles are equally as confusing as definite articles. The indefinite
articles are the equivalent of "a" or "an" in the singular form and "some" or
"a few" in the plural.
Indefinite Articles
| SINGULAR | PLURAL | |||
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| Nominative | ein | eine | ein | eine |
| Accusative | einen | eine | ein | eine |
| Dative | einem | einer | einem | einen |
You should now be ready for the next step into our journey. We are now entering the
land of verb conjugations and tenses. Hang on tight, you're in for a bumpy ride!
| Regular Verb Conjugation | |||
| Ich | frage | Wir | fragen |
| Du | fragst | Ihr | fragt |
| Er, Sie, Es | fragt | Formal Sie/Plural Sie | fragen |
I know you are just giddy with excitement about the next topic; reflexive verbs! There are two forms of the reflexive pronouns, the accusative and dative.
| Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Translation | Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Translation |
| ich | mich | mir | myself | wir | uns | uns | ourselves |
| du | dich | dir | yourself | ihr | euch | euch | yourselves |
| er, sie, es, Sie | sich | sich | himself... etc. | sie, Sie | sich | sich | themselves, yourselves |