| Language notes | | Nominative, Accusative, Dative |
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According to their place in the sentence and their relationship to other parts of the sentence, nouns as well as determining words such as 'a', 'an', 'the', may change their forms. This is what is grammatically referred to as cases. There are four cases in German:
1. The nominative case indicates the subject of the sentence; in other words the determining word + noun carry out the action of the verb.
2. The accusative case indicates the object of the sentence; in other words the determining word + noun are subjected to the action of the verb.
3. The genitive case is used when expressing possession - the equivalent of the English 'of' - and after certain prepositions.
4. The dative case is used when introducing an object - generally the equivalent of the English 'to' - and after certain prepositions.
| der Betrieb | Der Betrieb heißt Bootcenter Creek.
The company is called Bootcenter Creek. | nominative | Frau Reuter hat den Betrieb besucht.
Frau Reuter has visited the company. | accusative | Der Name des Betriebs ist Bootcenter Creek.
The name of the company is Bootcenter Creek. | genitive | Der englische Kunde muss dem Betrieb einen Brief schreiben.
The English customer must write a letter to the company. | dative |
| die Chefin | Die Chefin heißt Frau Maier.
The boss is called Frau Maier. | nominative | Anna kennt die Chefin.
Anna knows the boss. | accusative | Der Name der Chefin ist Frau Maier.
The name of the boss is Frau Maier. | genitive | Die Sekretärin hilft der Chefin.
The secretary helps the boss. | dative |
| das Unternehmen | Das Unternehmen ist privat.
The company is private. | nominative | Er hat das Unternehmen erweitert.
He has expanded the company | accusative | Er ist der Kopf des Unternehmens.
He is the head of the company. | genitive | Sie arbeiten bei dem Unternehmen.
They work for the company. | dative |
singular
der Kunde | plural
die Kunden |
Die Kunden kommen aus England
The customers come from England. | nominative | | die Stärke | die Stärken | Die Technologien sind die Stärken unseres Unternehmens.
The technologies are the strengths of our company. | accusative | | das Produkt | die Produkte | Der Verkaufspreis der Produkte ist sehr profitabel.
The retail price of the products is very profitable. | genitive | | der Plan | die Pläne | Neue Investitionen sind in den Plänen für die Zukunft.
New investments are in the plans for the future. | dative |
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