What Is The Nominative Case?

Welcome to the wonderful universe of German cases. The first stop on our journey through German grammatical cases is the Nominative. You can consider that one the “default mode” of the cases. Whenever you look up a German word in a book or online, it will be in the Nominative case. 

  • The Nominative case represents the subject of a sentence—the one doing the action.
  • The subject can be either a noun or a pronoun.
  • The Nominative case is considered the "default mode" of nouns.


Let's look at some examples: 

  • Der Mann fährt nach Deutschland. (The man is travelling to Germany.) 
  • Die Frau kommt aus Frankreich. (The woman is from France.) 
  • Ein Kind wirft den Ball. (A child throws the ball.) 
  • Die Eltern trinken Wasser. (The parents are drinking water.)

There are question words for all the cases that will help you a lot.

 
If you want to ask for the Nominative case in German you can use the questions:

  • “Wer?” (who) and
  • “Was?” (what)


Wer bist du?

(Who are you?)


If we take one of our examples from above we can ask the question:

  • Wer geht nach Deutschland? (Who is going to Germany?) 
  • Der Vater geht nach Deutschland. (The father is going to Germany.)

Here's a special hint to help you out:

Learn new nouns along with their respective articles.

For example, memorize new nouns like this:

  • der Vater (the father)
  • die Mutter (the mother)
  • das Kind (the child)


This will help you tremendously in the long run!


How To Show The Nominative Case In German

If you’ve already learned your German articles, then this section will be a piece of cake. Let's start with a list of definite and indefinite articles in the Nominative case.

What are those? Let’s review:

  • Definite articles show that the exact identity of the noun is already known.
  • Indefinite articles show that the exact identity of a noun is unknown.
  • One way to remember the difference is that, in English, "the" is definite, and "a/an" is indefinite.


Examples:

  • Das ist ein Auto. Das Auto ist blau. (This is a car. The car is blue.)
  • Das ist eine Tasche. Die Tasche ist schön. (This is a bag. The bag is beautiful.)


Easy enough, right? Alrighty, let’s get to the fun part: German Nominative articles!

German definite and indefinite articles in the  nominative case table


The same concept for the indefinite article is also applied for the negative article.

table of German negative articles in the nominative case


Now wait a minute. What is this sorcery? Negative articles?

Alright, calm down. It’s just the “not” version of an indefinite pronoun. You can think of them as words that mean something like “not a”, or “not any”.


Negative articles indicate that the noun is "not".


You can think of them as the phrases "not a" or "not any" in front of a noun.

For Example: 

  • Ist das eine Banane? (Is this a banana?)
  • Ja, das ist eine Banane. (Yes, this is a banana.) 
  • Nein, das ist keine Banane. (No, this is not a banana.)  
cat with a banana

Ich will keine Banane!

(I don't want a banana!)

Alright, let’s move on.  


When Do We Use The Nominative Case?

Using the German Nominative is pretty easy because, as you already know, you don’t have to change articles or endings. However, I would like to show you a few different settings, where we use the Nominative case. 


  1. The Nominative Case For Subjects 

The Nominative case marks our subject in the sentence. The subject of a sentence is the person or thing doing the action or being described. It's basically the star of the sentence.

A subject can be either a noun, a group of nouns or a pronoun. Let me give you an example:

  • Der Ball rollt unter den Tisch. (The ball is rolling under the table.)
  • Katie lernt Deutsch. (Katie learns German.)
  • Wir kommen aus Spanien. (We come from Spain.)  
  • Der Ball und das Auto sind neu. (The ball and the car are new.)


As you can see, in all of these examples we have our subjects in the Nominative case. 


  1. The Nominative Case After Certain Verbs

As you dig deeper into the German language and get to know more cases, you'll find that each case is connected to certain verbs. They're social creatures, and they want to stick together (#bff).

The Nominative case has its best friends too, of course. The most important verb, and the one that's easiest to remember for the Nominative case, is “sein” (to be). Let's take a look:

  • Ist das eine Banane? (Is that a banana?)
  • Ja, das ist eine Banane. (Yes, that is a banana.)
  • Ist das nicht eine Banane? (Is this not a banana?)

After the verb “sein” we always use the Nominative case


There are also some other verbs, that are very close friends with the Nominative case, and they all describe states of being. In grammar lingo, this phenomenon is called the predicate Nominative, but you don't need to remember that.

Just remember the gist of this section – that there are a few more verbs that also always take the Nominative case. 

  • bleiben (to stay) - Er bleibt mein bester Freund. (He stays my best friend.) 
  • werden (to become) - Sie wird eine reiche Ă„rztin sein. (She wants to become a rich doctor.) 
  • heiĂźen (to be called) - Das heiĂźt “sĂĽĂźer Apfel” auf Deutsch. (This is called “sĂĽĂźer Apfel” in German). 
  • scheinen (to seem) - Anja scheint eine gute Lehrerin zu sein. (Anja seems to be a good teacher.) 


  1. The Nominative Case For Exclamations!

You can also use the Nominative case in isolation, when you want to address persons or things and in exclamations.

Let's go over some funny exclamations and their more or less English equivalent and I promise they'll help you make a good impression when you use them with German native speakers.


  • Heiliger Strohsack! (Holy smokes! or also Holy cow!)

→ This is an expression of a positive surprise and it literally means "Holy straw bag!". Honestly, it’s a bit corny, but it’ll guarantee you a moment of fun! 


  • Ach, du liebe Zeit! (Oh my goodness!) 

→ Literally translated this means: oh, you dear time! This is an expression of surprise but rather in a negative way. 

(Oh my Goodness!)

  • Ach, du heiliger Bimbam! - ...

→ This is a very funny one and I’m not sure if I can find an equivalent in English. This expression is used for surprise, astonishment or consternation. 


  • So eine Unverschämtheit! (How rude!!)

→ Imagine when you are in a store and the person in the store is behaving super rudely, maybe even trying to rip you off. In this case when you are really outraged you can say: “So eine Unverschämtheit!” to express your feelings.

little girl saying how rude, so eine unverschämtheit

So eine Unverschämtheit!


Personal Pronouns In The Nominative Case

Can you believe that we already almost finished? Well, time flies when you’re having fun, right?

To finish our first journey into the wonderful worlds of German cases, we should take a look at personal pronouns, which are also a pretty big deal. Let's do a little review and show them to you one more time, including a little example with the Nominative case. 

German personal pronouns in the nominative case table


The Nominative Case With Adjectives

Adjectives are fantastic, colorful, and helpful words that help us describe nouns. We can put them either before or after the subject in a sentence, just like in English. The ending of the adjective changes, though, if it is in front of the noun it is describing. 

For example, let’s put the adjective after the noun:

  • Der Mann ist nett. (The man is nice.)
  • Die Frau ist hĂĽbsch. (The woman is pretty.) 
  • Das Haus ist schön. (The house is beautiful.) 
  • Die Kinder sind schnell. (The children are fast.)


In all of our examples above, the adjective has no special ending at all. When we put the adjectives between a definite article and the subject, you will see a slight change there. 

  • der nette Mann (the nice man) 
  • die hĂĽbsche Frau (the pretty woman)
  • das schöne Haus (the beautiful house) 
  • die schnellen Kinder (the fast children)


The beautiful thing here is, that all the singular forms have the same ending, so you only have to remember the different plural ending. Enjoy this nice moment, because things will look just a tiny bit different when we apply the indefinite article. 

  • ein netter Mann (a nice man)  
  • eine hĂĽbsche Frau (a nice woman) 
  • ein schönes Haus (a beautiful house) 
  • schnelle Kinder (fast children)


You can see the ending of masculine adjective in "nettER Mann" is just like the definite article of "der Mann", while the ending of the female adjective in "hĂĽbschE Frau" is like in the article "die Frau". The same thing happens with the neutral adjective in "schönes Haus", like "das Haus".

Let’s put a couple of examples into practice. 

  • Ist das eine hĂĽbsche Frau? - Ja, das ist eine hĂĽbsche Frau. (Is this a beautiful lady? - Yes, this is a beautiful lady.)
  • Sind das schnelle Kinder?  - Ja, das sind schnelle Kinder. (Are those fast children? - Yes, those are fast children.)
  • Ist dort ein schönes Haus? - Ja, dort ist ein schönes Haus. (Is there a beautiful house there? - Yes, there is a beautiful house there.)


Ok, now, relax your muscles for a moment and watch this cool video about the Nominative case.


A Little Extra For You

I have a little surprise for you! Are you ready? Pop quiz!

Don’t worry, I’m just kidding! But here is a quick practice session where you can see for yourself if you understood the Nominative case.

No pressure, it’s just for practice, no one will ever see it. Below, you will find a video where you can practice with Anja. Have fun!


Thank you so much for sticking with me until the end. I’m sure you did a great job and learned many interesting things about the Nominative case.

Oh right, and pop quiz!


Short Quiz: The German Nominative Case

Loved this? Spread the word

Subscribe to my Newsletter & Get your FREE German Essential Kit including:

  • The 12 most common German mistakes and how to avoid them (+ with sample sentences)
  • A list of the 30 most important dative verbs you must know!
  • A list of the most important German irregular verbs and an easy explanation of the past tenses
  • The picture of "Anja's house" with all the verbs that use "sein" in the perfect tense (high quality to print!)
  • When you sign up, you will become part of our worldwide community of German learners and receive the best tips and tricks for learning German!

PS: Don’t worry, I hate spam too! You can unsubscribe at anytime.


Related posts

>