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What is the German Nominative Case? (Nominativ)
- The Nominative Case (Nominativ) is the Basic form of the Noun and describes the Subject of the sentence (the Person or Thing that is acting or being talked about).
- It is one of the four German cases (Kasus) and it is also called 1st case.
- The Subject tells you how to conjugate the Verb.
- The question for the Nominative case is „Wer?“ or „Was?“
- We use the Nominative case also after the Verbs: „sein“, „werden“ and „bleiben“. (Warning: In this case, it is NOT the subject!)
Examples
- „Das Pferd ist weiß."
- „Der Mann schenkt der Frau die Blumen. "
- „Den Ball hat der Junge zum Geburtstag bekommen.
Nominative - Declension
You have to adapt the Articles to the case of the noun:
Use of Nominative Case
Use: Subject:
- „Das Pferd ist weiß.“
- „Der Mann schenkt der Frau die Blumen.“
- „Den Ball hat der Junge zum Geburtstag bekommen.“
The Subject is always in the Nominative case! NO EXCEPTIONS!!
Interesting Fact:
The Subject is the Person/Thing that performs the action or the person/thing we are talking about. It tells you how to conjugate the verb.
Use: Subject Complements:
The verbs „sein“, „werden“ and „bleiben“ use a subject complement. That means we have to use the nominative even though the noun is not the subject.
- „Du bist ein guter Schüler.“
- „Er ist der Beste!“
- „Du willst einmal ein Lehrer werden.“
Interesting Fact:
The Subject Complement is not the Subject, but it assigns a characteristic of the subject and is therefore in the Nominative case as well.
You have to pay special attention to this in the Subject Complements:
It is only a Subject Complements if „werden“ and „sein“ are the Main verb of the sentence.
- „Er ist der Beste.“
⇒ Sein („ist“) is the Main verb.
- „Er ist zu dem Mann gegangen.“
⇒ Sein („ist“) is the Auxiliary verb here to form the Perfect. ⇒ No Predicative/Nominative
Interesting Fact: Where do you find the Subject?
The Subject is very often at the beginning of the sentence, but it can also be in the middle of the sentence.
- „Der Junge hat den Ball zum Geburtstag bekommen“
- „Den Ball hat der Junge zum Geburtstag bekommen“
The Subject is usually in the First position. However, if there is something more important in the sentence than the Person/Thing performing the action, it can also be placed after the Conjugated Verb. (See: Sentence Structure)
Summary
- The Nominative case describes the Subject of the sentence.
- It is the Basic form.
- We can ask for it with a question words „Wer?“ or „Was?“
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Related Topics:
Entire lesson in German only: Nominativ
Detailed explanations of the individual German cases:
The following things need to be adjusted (declined) based on the case:
- Deklination von Artikeln (Declension of Articles)
- Deklination von Pronomen (Declension of Pronouns)
- Adjektivdeklination (Adjective Declension)
- N-Deklination (N-Declension)
The following things affect the case:
- Verben mit Ergänzung (Verbs with Complements)
- Verben mit Akkusativ (Verbs with Accusative)
- Verben mit Dativ (Verbs with Dative)
- Verben mit Dativ und Akkusativ (Verbs with Dative and Accusative)
- Verben mit Genitiv (Verbs with Genitive)
- Präpositionen mit Akkusativ (Prepositions with Accusative)
- Präpositionen mit Dativ (Prepositions with Dative)
- Präpositionen mit Genitiv (Prepositions with Genitive)
You can find an overview of all topics under German Grammar.
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