Dativ

The Dativ, or the dative case, is one of the grammatical cases used in German. It marks the indirect object of a verb—the recipient or beneficiary of an action—and can indicate to whom something is given, said, or done. The dative answers questions such as “to whom?” or “for whom?” and often interacts with certain verbs and prepositions.

In German, the dative is required by a number of verbs that take an indirect object (for example helfen, danken, gehören, begegnen, folgen) and by many prepositions that govern the dative. Some prepositions, called two-way prepositions, can govern either the dative or the accusative depending on movement: for example, Ich bleibe bei dem Freund (location, dative) versus Ich gehe zu dem Freund (movement, accusative with altered preposition form). Other common dative prepositions include aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu, and gegenüber.

Declension and forms: With the definite article, the dative forms are dem (masculine and neuter), der (feminine), and den (plural). With the indefinite article, the forms are einem (masculine and neuter) and einer (feminine); there is no indefinite article in the dative plural, and plural nouns typically require an appropriate article form or adjective endings to mark the case. Possessive determiners decline similarly (meinem, deiner, seinem, ihrem, unserem, eurem, Ihrem). Personal pronouns have distinct dative forms (mir, dir, ihm, ihr, ihm, uns, euch, Ihnen).

Examples include: Ich schenke dem Kind einen Ball. Das Buch gehört dem Lehrer. Ich danke dir. Wir fahren mit dem Bus. Er hilft mir. The dative thus functions as the grammatical vehicle for indirect objects and certain prepositional phrases in German.