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Genitive
And now, finally, we have the last of the four cases, the genitive case. There is a reason it usually is at the end of the list - it's the least used of the four cases. Years ago, most German lesson plans would put the order of the cases as nominative, genitive, accusative, dative when they were presented, but the modern instructional method makes more sense, both from pattern matching of adjective and article endings and for usage frequency. Anyway, on now to where this runt of a case gets used!
Possession
This usage is a straight forward thing to understand: it refers to any instance of one noun owning or having a close relationship with another noun. Or to put it differently, anything we could say in English using the preposition "of" or by using constructions with apostrophe-s like Mike's or Lindsey's could be placed in the genitive case.
| EXAMPLES OF GENITIVE CASE FOR POSSESSION | ||
| Sentence | Translation | Explanation of Genitive Case |
| Eine Freundin meiner Mutter ist sehr alt. | A friend of my mother is very old. | of my Mother is the possessive phrase. |
| Die Zähne meines Hundes sind scharf. | My dog's teeth are sharp. | Dog's teeth is the possessive phrase. |
| Mögen Sie die Farbe der Wand?. | Do you like the color of the wall?. | of the wall is the possessive phrase. |
Notice that in the genitive case, masculine and neuter nouns will be modified to take either an -es or an -s ending. See the nouns section for further explanation on how this is used.
It is common to find the dative case with the pronoun von used in place of the genitive in spoken German to indicate possession. Furthermore, when the "owner" of the possessed object is a pronoun, the dative case is always used to indicate possession. The table below illustrates some examples.
| EXAMPLES OF DATIVE CASE FOR POSSESSION AND GENITIVE EQUIVALENT | ||
| Sentence using dative | Sentence using genitive | Translation |
| Eine Freundin meiner Mutter ist sehr alt. | Eine Freundin von meiner Mutter ist sehr alt. | A friend of my mother is very old. |
| Die Zähne meines Hundes sind sharf. | Die Zähne von meinem Hund sind sharf. | My dog's teeth are sharp. |
| Haben Sie gern die Farbe der Wand?. | Haben Sie gern die Farbe von der Wand?. | Do you like the color of the wall?. |
| Ein Freund von mir ist sehr alt. | no equivalent | A friend of mine is very old. |
| Ich habe ein Bild von ihm. | no equivalent | I have a picture of him. |
Object of Certain Prepositions
There are several prepositions that can take the genitive case, but just like with possesion with nouns, spoken German and also in some colloquial usage the dative can be used instead. For details on the particular prepositions and their usage, see the section on prepositions.
Expressions of Indefinite Time
The genitive case is used with expressions of indefinite time, making it the partner with the accusative case which is used for expressions of definite time. You can easily separate definite time from indefinite time by simply considering if the expression is vague or specific - vague is indefinite, specific is definite.
| EXAMPLES OF GENITIVE CASE FOR INDEFINITE TIME | ||
| Sentence | Translation | Explanation of Genitive Case |
| Eines Nachts sind wir ohne ihn gefahren. | One night we drove without him. | Eines Nachts is the indefinite time phrase. |
| Eines Tages werde ich reich. | One day I'll get rich. | Eines Tages is the indefinite time phrase. |
Whoa - now just a minute here! Eines Nachts looks incorrect because Nacht is feminine and shouldn't take an -s ending, right? Well, here is another one of the nice exceptions to the rules in German. Because we say Eines Morgens, Eines Tages, and Eines Abends, we also say Eines Nachts just to keep them all analogous to each other. Nice, huh?
Last updated November 27, 2009 by Daryn Waite. 3917 total page views.
Visitor Comments:
On March 9, 2007 Grille said: Nice page, very rare to see native english speaking folks trying to learn german. I never realized how hard it is, until I tried to explain some german to french exchange students. Anyway, what I wanted to add is, that using "von" with dative instead of genitive to express posession is generally only acceptable when using more or less special "native-native German" like Swabian or Bavarian accent. in general its not seen as clean german and is only used in very complicated cases of genitive.
On January 25, 2006 CharlyHRO said: Just for the correct order. Nominative (1st case), Genitive (2nd case), Dative (3rd case), Accusative (4th case).
On October 15, 2005 dhke said: "Haben Sie gern die Farbe der Wand?" really sounds somewhat akward to a native speaker. The typicall expression here would probably be "Gefaellt Ihnen ...". others: scharf is written with a "c" between the "s" and "h" as there is not actual "sh" in German. The "sch"-"sh"-problem is a common phenomenon, that I myself have encountered the other way round very often. Think of "scharp" ;-)
On August 31, 2005 Grigvarg said: I would even translate: Do You like the wall's color? to Haben sie die Farbe der Wand gern? (just not for complicating the whole stuff ;) By the way....don't ask me why... I just know it because I speak the german language as my native one ;)
On January 12, 2005 Kuerbiskopf said: The sentence "Haben Sie gern die Farbe der Wand ?" (Do you like the color of the wall?) is not correct. I would translate it with "Moegen Sie die Farbe der Wand ?" (dative) and "Moegen Sie die Farbe von der Wand ?" (genitive). "OE" is a "O" with two points :) I am german and nobody would use "gerne haben" in this case. By the way "Haben Sie die Farbe der Wand gern ?" would be grammatically correct, but "moegen" (same meaning as "gerne haben") is used more often when speaking german.
On December 31, 2004 Daryn said: Fixed a couple of errors - thanks Tim.
