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Better German Podcast with Susi

Susanne Schilk-Blümel
Since 09/2023 58 episodes

37 Introduction to German Cases Part 3

Part 3

2024-05-30 17 min

Description & Show Notes

Episode 37 is the third and final part of a mini-series introducing German cases. It briefly recaps the first two episodes, which covered the definition and importance of cases, names of cases, and how verbs determine cases. The focus of this episode is on how German prepositions determine cases, with examples provided for clarity. It also explains special prepositions that require different cases depending on context. Get the free PDF German Case Essentials here.

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Summary
 Welcome to the third and final part of our series on German cases! In this episode, we delved deep into how prepositions determine German cases and covered special prepositions that ask for specific cases in different situations. We also discussed the importance of not getting too caught up in perfection and focused on the ultimate goal of effective communication in German. If you're new to German cases, be sure to grab the cheat sheet at bettergerman.info/cases for a summary of today's episode. And remember, at Better German, we prioritize practice over theory for effective language learning.

Key Topics Explored🔎 

Primary Topic: Introduction to German Cases
  • Understanding the concept of cases in German
  • The purpose of cases and their function in the German language
  • Comparison of cases in German and English
  • The relationship between verbs and cases
  • The significance of prepositions in determining cases
  • Overview of common prepositions and the cases they require
  • Introduction to specific prepositions that ask for either the dative or accusative case
  • The number of prepositions used in German and their specific case requirements
Primary Topic: Learning and Applying German Cases
  • Advice for new learners on how to approach the learning of cases
  • Use of cheat sheets and examples to aid in understanding and practice
  • The role of making one's own examples in grasping the correct usage of cases
  • Emphasizing the importance of communication over perfect grammar in language learning
  • Integration of correct sentence patterns for language practice
  • Encouragement to not be overly concerned about making mistakes while learning cases
Primary Topic: Summary and Additional Resources
  • Recap of the primary determinants of cases in German sentences
  • Importance of understanding the basic forms of nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases
  • The availability of a free PDF "German Case Essentials" for further reference and practice
  • Reference to the Better German Academy for alternative approaches to learning German without extensive grammar focus
  • Recommendations for further learning and engagement with the German language
  • This comprehensive sequence of topics covered in the podcast will serve as a useful guide for individuals seeking to understand and apply the fundamental principles of German cases.
Related Episodes
Other Resources 📚
  • Download this PDF on Introduction to German cases that will provide you will an understanding what they are and tables of cases. But that’s only the beginning. You will get explanations of the basic meanings of all cases and tables of Verbs with Dativ, and the most important prepositions with the needed cases. ALL OF THAT WITH TRANSLATED EXAMPLE SENTENCES! Master German Cases today!
  • Check out this Interactive German Movie Guide with suitable TV shows and movies with subtitles in your language, so you can start using movies to learn right away! Watching German movies and TV shows is great to help you learn German.
  • Listen to All The Episodes Published So Far!

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Transcript

Welcome to the Better German podcast. My name is Susi Blümel, and I will teach you German and everything around the language , the countries and the culture. Welcome to the third part of my mini series. That's the third and the last part of Introduction to German Cases. This was originally going to be one episode, but then it turned out to be super long and super intense, and then I decided to split it up in 3 episodes. So, if you haven't listened to the first two episodes, I suggest you to do that. In the first two episodes we've covered What are cases at all, why do they even exist, and what are they? Because they do not really exist in English except for one little thing that's left over. And we've also covered the different names of the cases and some basic ideas about these cases and we've gone over how verbs determine cases. And in this episode, I'm going to give you a short introduction how prepositions are determining the German cases, and um, also a short introduction into some special prepositions that ask for specific cases in different situations. Uh, before I jump into the prepositions and the cases, I want to tell you, if you're new to my podcast and you do not at this point have a specific problem with cases, I suggest you to start on a different episode. A short summary about cases is they are different forms for certain kinds of words— you'll hear it in the first two episodes— uh, depending on the position in the sentence. Depending on your own native language, this could be uh, something that you have to wrap your mind around it. Don't go crazy, it is totally possible to learn it. Um, get the cheat sheet and look at the examples in there, and also like where you really learn that is by making it your own examples and also reading and looking and checking, "Okay, why is this case there? Which one of the rules are, have been applied there?" And then over time you will learn. Don't worry, there is no problem if you make any mistakes in the beginning. When you actually do one of my courses, you practice the specific correctness of the sentences only when you learn sentence patterns. There's a whole lot of episodes in my podcast that are sentence patterns. This is the way where you learn how to build correct sentences, and when you practice them, those, then you make sure that you have everything perfectly and the cases are correct. When you do conversations, when you do other things or just tries to talk to people, don't worry about it too much. Because if you stop speaking, because you're afraid that you may make a mistake, then you've been over-corrected or over-correcting yourself. Because, uh, that's not the point. You're not learning German in order to have perfect grammar, but you'll learning German in order to communicate, and then over time you add more correctness in grammar and things like that. Okay, good. So prepositions, let's talk about those. Prepositions, these are small words, like "on, under, behind." They also always ask for a specific case, and you just learn them. And the most frequent ones, the ones that you will use most want, akkusativ or Dativ, and you learn them. I'm going to give you a few examples. Ich gehe zu dem Haus." The whole sentence means "I go to the house." "To" (zu) is a preposition, and this preposition "zu" always wants the Dativ, and "dem Haus" is Dativ. " Ich gehe zu dem Haus." Or another example would be the sentence: "Sie strickt für den Mann."— "She needs for the husband" or "for the men." So "den Mann" is Akkusativ and this little word, "für" —"for" wants Akkusativ and that's why we have "den Mann," it's Akkusativ. The good news is there are not that many prepositions. There are maybe, I don't know, off the top of my head, 50 prepositions max, that are used a lot in German and most of them demand one specific case. So when you learn that preposition, you just make sure that you understand what this is. You make examples. First, you understand what it means, and then you make, when you make the examples and you practice that preposition, you also make sure that you know all the different uh, forms that it asked for and you make a lot of examples, and then you just learn how to use that correctly. And then, maybe you will some times make a mistake for it, but over time you will use it correctly. Okay. One last thing I want to mention. There are some specific prepositions and they're not a lot. In fact, they're three. 6 7, 8, 9, nine of them that have a specialty. They ask for either the Dativ or the Akkusativ depending on the situation, and I just want to give you like a two-minute intro. This is also covered with a lot of examples in the cheat sheet, that you get when you go to either bettergerman.info/cases. This is going to bring you directly to the place where you can access the cheat sheet, or you can go to bettergerman.info/ give me one second. I just have to find out /37 bettergerman.info/37 and there you get the show notes or you will find out, find also the link everywhere you might listen to this podcast. So, however, these specific prepositions are the small words "in," which mean either "in" or "at" or "to." "on" —"auf," which is "on." "hinter," which is "behind." "neben," which is "next to." "über," which is "above." "Unter," which is "under." "vor," which is "in front of." Or "to the front of." This one's actually an easier one. "zwischen," which is "between" and, "an," which is "at" or "on" like "an der Wand" is "at the wall." So, and these either one, Dativ Or Akkusativ, and that could be confusing because if you look at the examples, you will see, um, that this, I understand that this is, particularly for English-speaking people, something that you have to wrap your mind around. So basically it's not very difficult. When you have, let's take "in," as an example. It's valid for all of these words that I told you. When you ask where, where is something happening? And in this sense that it's not a motion towards or a direction. So "he is at the party." Or "he learns at school." So there is no motion that or direction involved. Then you use Dativ and as opposed to if you want to know, or you could ask for it, "where to." This is not something that you would probably ask in English all the time, but anyway, if you're using the sense of "where to" then you're using Akkusativ. So I'm giving you an example. In German, "Ich bringe die Box in den Keller." So "I'm bringing the box to the basement." Or "in the basement" or "I put the box in the basement." So, then "in den Keller" is a direction. "I'm bringing it to the basement." And you could ask like "where to, do, I, put this" or "where to, am I bringing this?" And then you have Akkusativ Or. "Das Kind lernt in der Schule,"— "The child learns at school." It's Dativ because it's "where." But "Der Mann fährt in die Schule."— "The man is driving" or "drives to the school." So "Where to is he driving?" So when you can ask "where to" just with these eight prepositions. Then you use Akkusativ. And when it's just a place and there's no direction or motion or, or like this is not the destination where something is going to, then you use Dativ. This is just for those eight. However, those eight are used very much, and all the other prepositions ask for one case only. Good. So, summarize that last part. what is determining, what is determining which case we are using is either the verb, or if I have a preposition in that sentence, the preposition. So basically to sum it up very shortly, cases are in certain languages, including German, different forms that some of the words in a sentence take based on the position in the sentence or based on the function in the sentence, actually. And they're determined either by the verb, which is the word like "walk, talk, see" or the preposition, which are the little words like "auf, unter" if there is a preposition in the sentence. So the most frequent cases are the basic form, the Nominativ erster Falle, and the Akkusativ vierter Falle. there is very much more that could be said about cases, but I wanted to make this just an introduction and basically a basic definition of what Cases are. So go and download the cheat sheet where you will find a summary of this for you to look at again. You find it a bettergerman.info/cases, or you will also find the link in the show notes and the show notes you find in bettergerman.info/35, for the number of the episode and this one is 35. By the way, if you're learning German in one of my courses, in the Beginner's Course, you will not hear the word Cases, because you're learning German in a different way. And you're learning even how to make correct sentences in a different way than in most traditional courses. So if you're looking for a course, with not a lot of grammar, and you're still learning correctly how to speak German, but with much more practice and little theory, then take a look at the Better German Academy, and see what's there. There's more courses being at it so you can already enroll at the German Beginners Course, at the Total beginners Course. And, you will see what's there, there are different courses. There are some courses that just take you from beginner to very advanced, but they're also specialist courses like, courses for pronunciation or a movie challenge. So take a look at that and I'll see you in the next episode. Bye bye!

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