So confused about German cases! :(

I'm fine with nominative and accusative but I get confused about dative and genitive.

For instance, I have the second clause of a sentence: "...,die amerikanische Konzerne ihre örtlich Geschäfte übernehmen" How do I work out the cases/endings for "ihre" and "örtlich"? Is "örtlich" genitive because "ihre" is possessive?

Reply 1

greeniev

3

I think it depends on the context beforehand. Unfortunately I can't work it out when just seeing the second part, sorry! :redface:

Can you post the stuff before? You can also PM me if you want :smile:

Reply 2

kateykat

OP

Oh ok sorry, wasn't sure if the first part was necessary or not!

"Im Allgemeinen haben europäische Länder viele Angst für die großen amerikanischen Konzerne, weil sie nicht wollen, die amerikanische Konzerne ihre örtlich Geschäfte übernehmen"

I hope that actually makes sense, I have trouble with word order a lot too! :redface:

Reply 3

greeniev

3

Maybe you could rephrase that to
"Im Allgemeinen fürchten [fear] (die) europäischen Länder die großen amerikanischen Konzerne, weil sie nicht wollen, dass diese [maybe that's better than repeating...] ihre örtlichen Geschäfte übernehmen"
I think that in the case of "örtlichen" it's accusative though...
Hope that helps! :smile:

Reply 4

Fleece

15

i think you'd need to change it so you have a dass after the comma after wollen...

weil sie nicht wollen, dass die amerikanische...

and I think it'd just be accusative endings...

Reply 5

Fleece

15

oops posted at same time!

lol.

OP

Thank you both, you've been extremely helpful! :smile:

no problem :biggrin:

you need to learn your adjectival-agreements-table. lol i still get mistakes.

Reply 10

Ziggy Stardust

German cases are like so exciting :wink:

Reply 11

Cunning Linguist

3

dan

German cases are like so exciting :wink:

are you being serious there, or sarcy?!

Reply 12

yusufu

16

linguist786

are you being serious there, or sarcy?!

It's obvious they're lying! No one likes german cases.

Reply 13

Fleece

15

I don't know. Sometimes I see Dan in lectures licking his grammar book...

Reply 14

Ziggy Stardust

Fleece

I don't know. Sometimes I see Dan in lectures licking his grammar book...

Ha!

Monika Reinmann? Yum.

Reply 15

gringalet

12

elbow_fan

I'm fine with nominative and accusative but I get confused about dative and genitive.

For instance, I have the second clause of a sentence: "...,die amerikanische Konzerne ihre örtlich Geschäfte übernehmen" How do I work out the cases/endings for "ihre" and "örtlich"? Is "örtlich" genitive because "ihre" is possessive?

To be very basic, you use the dative after certain prepositions, and the genitive after certain prepositions and when you want to translate 'of the'. When something's an indirect object it's in the dative too. Your 'oertlich' there should be in the same case as 'ihre' - possessive pronouns don't govern case. I can see why you'd think that, but just try not to over complicate things!

Reply 16

BovineBeast

linguist786

you need to learn your adjectival-agreements-table. lol i still get mistakes.

I finally worked out how adjective agreements work. In the nominative, at least. If there's a definite article, it doesn't need to agree, if there isn't, it must reflect the article ending in some way. Oh, but this doesn't work in the plural. Or any of the other cases. But the rest is '-en' anyway.

Hence, der gute Hund, das gute Kind, die gute Katze. Ein guter Hund, ein gutes Kind, eine gute Katze.

Reply 17

S-J

I like German cases! No, really I do! It's a case of just learning the tables and pratising. I used to think it was really hard, but it's not at all, when you know the tables by heart.

So confused about German cases! :(

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