German - Dative - Grammar - longua.org

Dative

The nouns (Substantive, Nomen) can appear in different cases (Kasus / Fällen). The dative shows the relation of two persons or things (see: indirect object / zu, nach) or goes with certain prpositions.

Dative:

Table of the definite article:

	male	female	neutral	plural
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die
Dative	dem	der	dem	den ...n
Genitive	des ...s	der	des ...s	der

Table of the indefinite article:

	male	female	neutral	plural
Nominativ	ein	eine	ein	-
Akkusativ	einen	eine	ein	-
Dativ	einem	einer	einem	- ...n
Genitiv	eines ...s	einer	eines ...s	-

Usage:

Some verbs need a dative complement:

passen (to fit), stehen (to suit), helfen (to help), gratulieren (to congratulate), es geht (~how are you?), gefallen (to please), gehören (to belong), anbieten (to offer), schmecken (to taste), fehlen (to miss), antworten (to answer), danken (to thank), gelingen (to succeed), nutzen (to be useful), schaden (to harm)

Example:
Die Frau (Nominativ) antwortet dem Mann (Dativ).
The woman (nominative / subject) answer the man (dative object).

Other verbs need an accusative and a dative:

geben (to give): schicken (to send), senden (to send), übergeben (to hand over), bringen (to bring), schenken (to make a gift), leihen (to borrow, lend)
sagen (to say): mitteilen (to inform), erklären (to explain), erzählen (to tell), nennen (to name)
zeigen (to show)

Example:
Der Mann (Nominativ) gibt dem Freund (Dativ) den Schlüssel (Akkusativ).
The man (nominative / subject) give the key (accusative object / direct complement) to the man (dative object / indirect complement).

Also read:

German - Nominative

German - Accusative

German - Dative