When to Use Them?

German cases are four: the nominative case (subject of the sentence); the accusative case (the direct object); the dative case (the indirect object), and the genitive case (possessive).
Cases are not something strange to English, pronouns for example use a certain kind of cases, for example we say “he speaks”, and “give him” and not “give he”, did you see how “he” became “him” in the second example, well the same thing happens in German, the only difference is that in German it’s much more widely used, not only in pronouns, even nouns/ adjectives/ articles … use the same thing. The German case indicates the role of an element in a sentence

Nominativ (for subjects in a sentence; standard case)

The nominative case—in German and in English—is the subject of a sentence. The term nominative is from Latin and means to name (think of “nominate”).
In the examples below, the nominative word or expression is in red:

• Der Hund beißt den Mann. The dog bites the man.
• Dieser Gedanke ist blöd. This thought is stupid.
• Meine Mutter ist Architektin. My mother is an architect.

The nominative  is the easiest case in German and also the one dictionaries use as the standard form of nouns, adjectives, articles…and refers to the subject of the sentence. The teacher went to school, “The teacher” is the subject of the sentence, and therefore “The teacher” is nominative.

So it will take the nominative form in German, which is “Der Lehrer”.

Below is a table of some forms of Nominative, you will only know the difference when you will go through the 3 other cases (accusative, Dative, Genitive).

Definite Articles
Der, die, das, die (they all means the)

Indefinite Articles
Ein, Eine, Ein(they all mean a, an)

Personal Pronouns
Ich, du, er, sie, wir, ihr, sie. (I, you, he, she…)

Adjectives (masc., fem, neuter, plural)
Weißer, weiße, weißes, weiße (all these forms mean white)

Let’s get adjectives involved as well. I see the young teacher = ich sehe den jungen Lehrer. Young in German is jung, but since we’re using the accusative case, then the adjective should copy the article it follows, which is “den/ the” = masculine, so “den jungen”. If you look at the table above you will understand why we added “en” after the adjective “jung”.  Now let’s get personal pronouns involved. I see him = ich sehe ihn. Easy, isn’t it!

Akkusativ (for direct objects in a sentence)

All direct objects in a sentence have to be in the accusative case. Direct objects are defined as those nouns or names that are directly affected by the action described by a sentence’s verbs.
The accusative is only visible on masculine nouns. The definite article ‘der’ changes to ‘den’.
Thus, for feminine and neuter nouns, the accusative and nominative forms are identical.

In the following sentences, the subjects are highlighted in green (nominative), the direct objects are highlighted in red (accusative).

The accusative is also used, when using the preposition ‘in’ in connection with a noun describing a direction.

In the examples below, the accusative (direct object) word is in red:

• Der Hund beißt den Mann. The dog bites the man.
• Er beißt ihn. He (the dog) bites him (the man).
• Den Mann beißt der Hund. The dog bites the man.
• Beißt der Hund den Mann? Is the dog biting the man?
• Beißt den Mann der Hund? Is the dog biting the man?

The direct object (accusative) functions as the receiver of the action of a transitive verb. In the examples above, the man is acted upon by the dog, i.e., receives the action of the subject (“dog”).

The accusative case is considered the direct object. I see the teacher, “the teacher” is the direct object of the sentence, and therefore would take the accusative form, and since “the teacher” is masculine it will become in German “den Lehrer” and not “der Lehrer” as in the nominative case. I see the teacher = Ich sehe den Lehrer.

Definite Articles
Den, die, das, die (they all means the)

Indefinite Articles
Einen, Eine, Ein (they all mean a, an)

Personal Pronouns
mich, dich, ihn, sie, uns, euch, sie. (me, you, him, her…)

Adjectives (masc., fem, neuter, plural)
Weißen, weiße, weißes, weiße (all these forms mean white)

Let’s get adjectives involved as well. I see the young teacher = ich sehe den jungen Lehrer. Young in German is jung, but since we’re using the accusative case, then the adjective should copy the article it follows, which is “den/ the” = masculine, so “den jungen”. If you look at the table above you will understand why we added “en” after the adjective “jung”.  Now let’s get personal pronouns involved. I see him = ich sehe ihn. Easy, isn’t it!

Dativ (for indirect objects in a sentence)

Now things will get serious because the dative case is very important in German, the Dative in German is just like the indirect object in English, or in other words, it’s like the receiver of the direct object. Unlike the accusative, which only changes in the masculine gender, the dative changes in all genders and in the plural. The pronouns also change correspondingly.
The indirect object (dative) is usually the receiver of the direct object (accusative). In the first example below, the driver got the ticket. Often the dative can be translated with “to”-”the policeman gives the ticket to the driver.

• Der Polizist gibt dem Fahrer einen Strafzettel. The policeman is giving the driver a ticket.
• Ich danke Ihnen. I thank you.
• Wir machen das mit einem Computer. We do that with a computer.

So for example: I give the book to him, “I” is the subject of the sentence, “the book” is the direct object, and “him” is the receiver, therefore also called the indirect object, in which we’re interested when it comes to the dative case.

Definite Articles
Dem, der, dem, den (they all means to the)

Indefinite Articles
Einem, Einer, Einem (they all mean to a, to an)

Personal Pronouns
mir, dir, ihm, ihr, uns, euch, ihnen. (to me, to you, to him, to her…)

Adjectives (masc., fem, neuter, plural)
Weißen, weißen, weißen, weißen (all these forms mean to white)

Usually the equivalent of the dative case in English would include “to”, like our example above, I give the book to him, I send it to him, I show it to him… but in German that “to” is usually included in the expression used, for example “to him = ihm” “to the = dem” …so it’s not that complicated after all.

Genitiv (indicates possession)

The genitive case in German shows possession and is expressed in English by the possessive “of” or an apostrophe-s (‘s). The genitive is used more in written German than in spoken form. In spoken, everyday German, von plus the dative often replaces the genitive: Das Auto von meinem Bruder = My brother’s car.

• das Auto meines Bruders my brother‘s car (the car of my brother)
• die Bluse des Mädchens the girl‘s blouse (the blouse of the girl)
• der Titel des Filmes (Films) the title of the film

Finally we will learn the genitive in German. It’s not used as often as the other cases, but still has its own importance, because the genitive in German means possession, or in other words it means the expression “of…” or “’s”. The book of my teacher = das Buch meines Lehrers.

Note that nouns in the masculine and neuter take an “s” at the end, as in our example: The book of my teacher = das Buch meines Lehrers.

Feminine and plural nouns don’t take any “s” at the end. More detailed information would be in the German Nouns page. Also you can check out the adjectives and articles page to see how they form in different cases with some examples. Good luck!

Examples Table

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sources : speak7.com, about.com, nthuleen.com, babelnation.com