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German Dative Case (der Dativ) Explained

der Dativ

Before this lesson: make sure you've covered The Accusative Case first.

Recommended order: Dativ builds directly on Nominativ, Akkusativ, and Articles — go back if any of those still feel shaky.

The dative case marks the indirect object — typically the person something is given or done to/for. It's the third and final A1 case, and it builds directly on what you learned with nominative and accusative.

See it in action

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Dativ	dem	der	dem	den (+n)

Easy rule: Ask "to whom / for whom?" — that's your dative object.

🎯 Quick check

What question does the dative case answer?

German Dative Case (der Dativ) Explained

See it in action

🎯 Quick check

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