Hi there Toytown,

I see there are some really clever people here (as regards translations). I'm hoping there are some language teachers around to answer this, because this is a grammar question.

In German the cases are extremely important, i.e. nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. I remember learning that with the help of certain questions you can check which case you need or are looking at. Can anyone here post a list I can use when attempting a translation? The longer I think about whether to write "dem", "den" or just "der" the more confused I get.

All suggestions are welcome.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Cheers

Best suggestion I have is to just search on google for german grammar rules. Takes 10 seconds and you'll have all you need to know. Apart from that, I'm confused with what you actually need...a list of questions, or to know when you use which article...

1. Fall - Nominativ -> Wer oder was ... ?
2. Fall - Genitiv -> Wessen ... ?
3. Fall - Dativ -> Wem ... ?
4. Fall - Akkusativ -> Wen oder was ... ?

look for deklination or kasus and you'll find quite a lot of pages e.g. http://www.udoklinger.de/Deutsch/Grammatik/DekNomen.htm

Gorgo,
That's just what I need. Brilliant. Thank you so much.
I'm in a big rush.
Thanks again and cheers.

I have a dutch friend who moved here 5 years ago. Picked up German fast and has no accent now.
But he told me this list never worked for him. The problem already is in the questions. He couldn't tell the difference between wen and wem. I couldn't believe it, but it doesn't matter in dutch, obviously.

I give something to somebody (wem?)
I like somebody (wen?)

German children are given a tip in third grade on how to tell dative and accusative apart: You ask for "wem" (3rd case = dative) and there are three bumps on the "m" in joined writing. For what it's worth.

toko: yes you're right, as far as I know there is no dativ/akkusativ in dutch. There is also no difference in english, but you can ask "who to?" -> Dativ; "who?" -> Akkusativ

Quite ridiculous actually

The answer is the answer:

If you answer Akkusativ, then the question is also Akkusativ:

Wen liebe ich? Ich liebe den Helmut.

Wem gebe ich mein Herz? Ich gebe es dem Helmut.

Basically, when you have two objects one will be accusative, the other dative.

Ich gebe mein Herz (direct object, accusative) dem Helmut (indirect object, dative).

It's easier in English as you will always* need a preposition to indicate your dative object.

I give my heart (no preposition) to (preposition) Helmut.

EDIT: *almost
I give Helmut my heart.

I'm German and I don't get it...

So it's basically a direct object/indirect object?! Or am I barking up the wrong tree...again...?

Basically if you get your head around this joke:

"A sandwich walks into a bar and says "i'd like a beer." The bartender says "we don't serve food here."

you're halfway there.

I gave up barking up the wrong tree a long time ago. Now I just piss over the trunk

May be a bit late, who cares...

Let's put all 4 cases in 1 sentence:

Der kleine Eddie schenkt seiner Freundin das Gebiss seiner Oma.

Okay:

Wer schenkt das Gebiss? -> der kleine Eddie -> Nominativ
Was schenkt er?-> das Gebiss -> Akkusativ
Wem schenkt er das Gebiss -> seiner Freundin -> Dativ
Wessen Gebiss ist das denn? -> das Gebiss seiner Oma -> Genitiv