Meaningful Cases

A change of case or the use of one word rather than another can change the meaning of German sentences. I still struggle sometimes. For instance, what is the difference between the following two sentences?

• Ich habe gestern den Chef gesprochen
• Ich habe gestern mit dem Chef gesprochen

The first sentence refers to a conversation with a quite particular intention about a particular subject. The second leaves this open. It might just as easily have been a general conversation.

Two sentences now where the only change is in the preposition used

• Wir haben von dem Chef gesprochen
• Wir haben über den Chef gesprochen

The former means the boss was mentioned and the latter that he was the topic of conversation.

In some instances the change of preposition involves a shift of tense. For example:

• Wir freuen uns über das Geschenk
• Wir freuen uns auf die Ferien

The first is about present enjoyment and the second is looking forward to enjoying. Sich freuen is by no means the only verb that requires you to memorise the accompanying prepositions because of the radical difference of meaning. But who said learning German was easy?

Location - Location - Location

The prepositions an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen are all about location in relation to an object (two or more objects for zwischen). I hadn't thought about them for years in terms of being a group of words about location because I'd learnt them as a list of prepositions that can govern either the dative or accusative in the substantives that follow. I find it very useful to go back to the basics of grammar from time to time and work through exercises to check out my competence with things I've often taken for granted.

So what determines whether the substantive ends up in the dative or the accusative? Let's take a look at some sentences about birds and windows.

1. Die Vögel warten im Winter vor dem Fenster.
2. Ein Vogel war vor das Fenster geklatscht.
3. Ich habe vor dem Fenster ein Futterplatz für die Vögel eingerichtet.
4. Das Tarnnetz wird vor das Fenster gespannen und sorgt dafür, dass Bewegungen im inneren des Autos für die Vögel  weniger sichtbar sind.

Number 1 is obviously dative because what is happening has no movement, it's about being in a place in relation to an object. Typical verbs for these nicht-zielgerichtete Geschehen are warten, sitzen, stehen, wohnen.

Number 2 is accusative because there is movement in relation to the object. Grammar books say things like: Akkusativ erscheint bei zielgerichtetem Geschehen, das richtungsbetont ist (setzen, stellen, kommen).

Number 3 is not quite so obvious at first because putting something up seems to imply movement. However, the movement is not related to the window. The sentence only says the action happened somewhere in front of the window, there is no movement in any direction in relation to the window. So this time it's dative.

So how does number 4 differ? I struggled with the reasoning and ended up thinking in English. What is happening is something is being stretched over the window rather than something being stretched between two points that happen to be somewhere in front of the window. The action directly involves the window, it's not an action at a point some distance in front of the window. I've never come across an example that has puzzled me as much as this and my reasoning may be false. I would welcome a clearer explanation for this one.

Adjektive - adjectives

From time to time I shall create Grammar exercises. They will also be available for download, with the solutions, from a page on Jeckylls Heft - Jeckylls Übungen. The first exercise is about adjectives derived - abgeleitet - from nouns.

Adjectives can be formed from nouns by adding the suffix -ig,  -lich oder -isch but you also need to use the correct case.


Setze abgeleitete Adjektive auf -ig, -lich oder -isch im richtigen Fall ein!

der Nebel                an einem _________________  Abend

der Witz                  mit einer ___________________ Bemerkung

der Freund              mit __________________ Grüßen

der Tag                   während der ________________ Fütterung

das Herz                  mit ________________ Grüßen

der Stürm                trotz des _______________ Wetters

die Kraft                 Wohnungen mit ________________ Tönen

das Land                 in ____________________ Umgebung

die Ruhe                 bei ________________ Fahrweise

die Gefahr               in einer ________________ Kurve

die Stadt                 in den _______________ Museen

das Kind                 in seinem ______________ Gesicht

Diese Übung und ihre Lösung können Sie als PDF Datei (Adjektive01.pdf) herunterladen von Jeckylls Übungen