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Is this nominative case or accusative case?


Accusative vs. nominative case ambiguity?Should one necessarily learn, when a verb goes with a dative object and when with accusative one?The definition of Zusammenfassung: Understanding the cases and its repeated articlesCase confusion nominative-accusativewhat kind of case does the object in comparative sentence take?Why is the adjective ending of the accusative case used in this sentence after »als«?Why is Accusative used in one sentence, but Nominative in another, despite similar constructions?Why is the following example in the nominative instead of accusative?How should I choose between “Welcher” (Nominative) and “Welchen” (Accusative)Accusative with “gewohnt” and general patterns versus isolated locutions













5















If I make a sentence like:




Das ist meine Familie.




Is the sentence correct at first place? Is it a nominative case for Familie or is it accusative? It looks confusing to me because here the subject of the sentence comes after the ist so I am not sure about which case applies here. Generally, I find it difficult to determine the grammatical case when the verbs are sein and haben.










share|improve this question




























    5















    If I make a sentence like:




    Das ist meine Familie.




    Is the sentence correct at first place? Is it a nominative case for Familie or is it accusative? It looks confusing to me because here the subject of the sentence comes after the ist so I am not sure about which case applies here. Generally, I find it difficult to determine the grammatical case when the verbs are sein and haben.










    share|improve this question


























      5












      5








      5








      If I make a sentence like:




      Das ist meine Familie.




      Is the sentence correct at first place? Is it a nominative case for Familie or is it accusative? It looks confusing to me because here the subject of the sentence comes after the ist so I am not sure about which case applies here. Generally, I find it difficult to determine the grammatical case when the verbs are sein and haben.










      share|improve this question
















      If I make a sentence like:




      Das ist meine Familie.




      Is the sentence correct at first place? Is it a nominative case for Familie or is it accusative? It looks confusing to me because here the subject of the sentence comes after the ist so I am not sure about which case applies here. Generally, I find it difficult to determine the grammatical case when the verbs are sein and haben.







      grammatical-case standard-german






      share|improve this question















      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited Mar 7 at 17:01







      Navjot Waraich

















      asked Mar 7 at 16:38









      Navjot WaraichNavjot Waraich

      1284




      1284




















          4 Answers
          4






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          7














          Some verbs can be used as couplers (they are called copula in linguistic terms). In a narrow sense these are sein, werden, and bleiben. These verbs take a Prädikativ, which may be an "object" in the nominative case.




          Das ist meine Familie.



          Er wird nochmal Vater.



          Ein Fehler bleibt ein Fehler.




          The other common option is an adjective phrase as in




          Diese Übung war recht einfach.




          Other verbs may be sometimes used as couplers, too. For example




          Er gilt als begabter Koch.



          Diese Sache erweist sich als Glücksfall.



          Du siehst in diesen Sachen aus wie deine Oma.




          and some more. You can often spot that use by the comparative conjunctions als and wie.






          share|improve this answer

























          • So, by your explanation it will be correct if I make a sentence as Ich bin ein Softwareentwickler instead of Ich bin einen Softwareentwickler?

            – Navjot Waraich
            Mar 7 at 22:34






          • 3





            You have to use the nominative case, yes.

            – Janka
            Mar 7 at 22:34


















          6














          Yes, your sentence is correct. (apart from the capitalisation of "Familie")



          "Something/someone is something/someone" the latter "something" can be considered an object in nominative, which is often called a "Subjektsprädikativ"






          share|improve this answer























          • oops - Du warst 14 Sekunden schneller - auf BoardGameGeek würde es jetzt heißen "I was ninja-d"...

            – Volker Landgraf
            Mar 7 at 16:53











          • So Das is object in the above sentence?

            – Navjot Waraich
            Mar 7 at 16:57












          • Also, can we say that when we explain about the subject using sein and haben, then it is nominative case?

            – Navjot Waraich
            Mar 7 at 16:58






          • 1





            "Das" is the subject. "meine Familie" is the Subjektsprädikativ.

            – tofro
            Mar 7 at 16:58






          • 2





            Nope to your second question. It's true for "sein" in many cases, but "haben" would ask for accusative.

            – tofro
            Mar 7 at 16:59


















          3














          It is Nominativ - you can ask "wer?" (who) - Wer ist das? Das ist meine Familie.



          If the sentence was "Ich sehe meine Familie", it would be Akkustaiv, for you could ask "wen sehe ich?" (whom do I see?).



          Unfortunately for foreign learners of German, the "meine Familie" looks the same in both cases.






          share|improve this answer






























            1














            I agree with the other answers but I will try to explain why it is so confusing for English and French speakers.



            1. English: We can't tell the difference between nominative and accusative at all for nouns and adjectives, so our understanding is based solely on pronoun examples. We are taught at school to say That's I "Das ist ich" but most people say That's me. We are taught that this is wrong (despite it being normal, and therefore right by definition according to some people) on the same grounds that "das is mich" would be wrong. However, although English is considered to be a Germanic language (and so should use the same rules as German) it is heavily influenced by French (see 2 below) and the Celtic languages (see 3 below), and these influences probably explain (in my opinion) why we normally say That's me.


            2. French: Normally they distinguish nominative and accusative for pronouns, e.g. je "ich" versus me "mich" (or "mir") but in certain situations they use a special, caseless form moi "ich/mich/mir" so when they say C'est moi you cannot tell what case the moi is and it does look more like "mich" than "ich". It is easy to see how C'est moi could have become It's me in English.


            3. The various Celtic languages use cases to varying degrees, but what they all have in common is a complete lack of distinction between nominative and accusative, applying to nouns, adjectives and pronouns. Thus a Scots Gaelic speaker, for example, when first learning English, would be tempted to translate 'S mì as [It]'s me as it sounds almost the same even though corresponds to both "ich" and "mich".






            share|improve this answer






















              Your Answer








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              4 Answers
              4






              active

              oldest

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              4 Answers
              4






              active

              oldest

              votes









              active

              oldest

              votes






              active

              oldest

              votes









              7














              Some verbs can be used as couplers (they are called copula in linguistic terms). In a narrow sense these are sein, werden, and bleiben. These verbs take a Prädikativ, which may be an "object" in the nominative case.




              Das ist meine Familie.



              Er wird nochmal Vater.



              Ein Fehler bleibt ein Fehler.




              The other common option is an adjective phrase as in




              Diese Übung war recht einfach.




              Other verbs may be sometimes used as couplers, too. For example




              Er gilt als begabter Koch.



              Diese Sache erweist sich als Glücksfall.



              Du siehst in diesen Sachen aus wie deine Oma.




              and some more. You can often spot that use by the comparative conjunctions als and wie.






              share|improve this answer

























              • So, by your explanation it will be correct if I make a sentence as Ich bin ein Softwareentwickler instead of Ich bin einen Softwareentwickler?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 22:34






              • 3





                You have to use the nominative case, yes.

                – Janka
                Mar 7 at 22:34















              7














              Some verbs can be used as couplers (they are called copula in linguistic terms). In a narrow sense these are sein, werden, and bleiben. These verbs take a Prädikativ, which may be an "object" in the nominative case.




              Das ist meine Familie.



              Er wird nochmal Vater.



              Ein Fehler bleibt ein Fehler.




              The other common option is an adjective phrase as in




              Diese Übung war recht einfach.




              Other verbs may be sometimes used as couplers, too. For example




              Er gilt als begabter Koch.



              Diese Sache erweist sich als Glücksfall.



              Du siehst in diesen Sachen aus wie deine Oma.




              and some more. You can often spot that use by the comparative conjunctions als and wie.






              share|improve this answer

























              • So, by your explanation it will be correct if I make a sentence as Ich bin ein Softwareentwickler instead of Ich bin einen Softwareentwickler?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 22:34






              • 3





                You have to use the nominative case, yes.

                – Janka
                Mar 7 at 22:34













              7












              7








              7







              Some verbs can be used as couplers (they are called copula in linguistic terms). In a narrow sense these are sein, werden, and bleiben. These verbs take a Prädikativ, which may be an "object" in the nominative case.




              Das ist meine Familie.



              Er wird nochmal Vater.



              Ein Fehler bleibt ein Fehler.




              The other common option is an adjective phrase as in




              Diese Übung war recht einfach.




              Other verbs may be sometimes used as couplers, too. For example




              Er gilt als begabter Koch.



              Diese Sache erweist sich als Glücksfall.



              Du siehst in diesen Sachen aus wie deine Oma.




              and some more. You can often spot that use by the comparative conjunctions als and wie.






              share|improve this answer















              Some verbs can be used as couplers (they are called copula in linguistic terms). In a narrow sense these are sein, werden, and bleiben. These verbs take a Prädikativ, which may be an "object" in the nominative case.




              Das ist meine Familie.



              Er wird nochmal Vater.



              Ein Fehler bleibt ein Fehler.




              The other common option is an adjective phrase as in




              Diese Übung war recht einfach.




              Other verbs may be sometimes used as couplers, too. For example




              Er gilt als begabter Koch.



              Diese Sache erweist sich als Glücksfall.



              Du siehst in diesen Sachen aus wie deine Oma.




              and some more. You can often spot that use by the comparative conjunctions als and wie.







              share|improve this answer














              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer








              edited Mar 7 at 21:00

























              answered Mar 7 at 19:01









              JankaJanka

              32.5k22963




              32.5k22963












              • So, by your explanation it will be correct if I make a sentence as Ich bin ein Softwareentwickler instead of Ich bin einen Softwareentwickler?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 22:34






              • 3





                You have to use the nominative case, yes.

                – Janka
                Mar 7 at 22:34

















              • So, by your explanation it will be correct if I make a sentence as Ich bin ein Softwareentwickler instead of Ich bin einen Softwareentwickler?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 22:34






              • 3





                You have to use the nominative case, yes.

                – Janka
                Mar 7 at 22:34
















              So, by your explanation it will be correct if I make a sentence as Ich bin ein Softwareentwickler instead of Ich bin einen Softwareentwickler?

              – Navjot Waraich
              Mar 7 at 22:34





              So, by your explanation it will be correct if I make a sentence as Ich bin ein Softwareentwickler instead of Ich bin einen Softwareentwickler?

              – Navjot Waraich
              Mar 7 at 22:34




              3




              3





              You have to use the nominative case, yes.

              – Janka
              Mar 7 at 22:34





              You have to use the nominative case, yes.

              – Janka
              Mar 7 at 22:34











              6














              Yes, your sentence is correct. (apart from the capitalisation of "Familie")



              "Something/someone is something/someone" the latter "something" can be considered an object in nominative, which is often called a "Subjektsprädikativ"






              share|improve this answer























              • oops - Du warst 14 Sekunden schneller - auf BoardGameGeek würde es jetzt heißen "I was ninja-d"...

                – Volker Landgraf
                Mar 7 at 16:53











              • So Das is object in the above sentence?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 16:57












              • Also, can we say that when we explain about the subject using sein and haben, then it is nominative case?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 16:58






              • 1





                "Das" is the subject. "meine Familie" is the Subjektsprädikativ.

                – tofro
                Mar 7 at 16:58






              • 2





                Nope to your second question. It's true for "sein" in many cases, but "haben" would ask for accusative.

                – tofro
                Mar 7 at 16:59















              6














              Yes, your sentence is correct. (apart from the capitalisation of "Familie")



              "Something/someone is something/someone" the latter "something" can be considered an object in nominative, which is often called a "Subjektsprädikativ"






              share|improve this answer























              • oops - Du warst 14 Sekunden schneller - auf BoardGameGeek würde es jetzt heißen "I was ninja-d"...

                – Volker Landgraf
                Mar 7 at 16:53











              • So Das is object in the above sentence?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 16:57












              • Also, can we say that when we explain about the subject using sein and haben, then it is nominative case?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 16:58






              • 1





                "Das" is the subject. "meine Familie" is the Subjektsprädikativ.

                – tofro
                Mar 7 at 16:58






              • 2





                Nope to your second question. It's true for "sein" in many cases, but "haben" would ask for accusative.

                – tofro
                Mar 7 at 16:59













              6












              6








              6







              Yes, your sentence is correct. (apart from the capitalisation of "Familie")



              "Something/someone is something/someone" the latter "something" can be considered an object in nominative, which is often called a "Subjektsprädikativ"






              share|improve this answer













              Yes, your sentence is correct. (apart from the capitalisation of "Familie")



              "Something/someone is something/someone" the latter "something" can be considered an object in nominative, which is often called a "Subjektsprädikativ"







              share|improve this answer












              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer










              answered Mar 7 at 16:51









              tofrotofro

              43.9k146132




              43.9k146132












              • oops - Du warst 14 Sekunden schneller - auf BoardGameGeek würde es jetzt heißen "I was ninja-d"...

                – Volker Landgraf
                Mar 7 at 16:53











              • So Das is object in the above sentence?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 16:57












              • Also, can we say that when we explain about the subject using sein and haben, then it is nominative case?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 16:58






              • 1





                "Das" is the subject. "meine Familie" is the Subjektsprädikativ.

                – tofro
                Mar 7 at 16:58






              • 2





                Nope to your second question. It's true for "sein" in many cases, but "haben" would ask for accusative.

                – tofro
                Mar 7 at 16:59

















              • oops - Du warst 14 Sekunden schneller - auf BoardGameGeek würde es jetzt heißen "I was ninja-d"...

                – Volker Landgraf
                Mar 7 at 16:53











              • So Das is object in the above sentence?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 16:57












              • Also, can we say that when we explain about the subject using sein and haben, then it is nominative case?

                – Navjot Waraich
                Mar 7 at 16:58






              • 1





                "Das" is the subject. "meine Familie" is the Subjektsprädikativ.

                – tofro
                Mar 7 at 16:58






              • 2





                Nope to your second question. It's true for "sein" in many cases, but "haben" would ask for accusative.

                – tofro
                Mar 7 at 16:59
















              oops - Du warst 14 Sekunden schneller - auf BoardGameGeek würde es jetzt heißen "I was ninja-d"...

              – Volker Landgraf
              Mar 7 at 16:53





              oops - Du warst 14 Sekunden schneller - auf BoardGameGeek würde es jetzt heißen "I was ninja-d"...

              – Volker Landgraf
              Mar 7 at 16:53













              So Das is object in the above sentence?

              – Navjot Waraich
              Mar 7 at 16:57






              So Das is object in the above sentence?

              – Navjot Waraich
              Mar 7 at 16:57














              Also, can we say that when we explain about the subject using sein and haben, then it is nominative case?

              – Navjot Waraich
              Mar 7 at 16:58





              Also, can we say that when we explain about the subject using sein and haben, then it is nominative case?

              – Navjot Waraich
              Mar 7 at 16:58




              1




              1





              "Das" is the subject. "meine Familie" is the Subjektsprädikativ.

              – tofro
              Mar 7 at 16:58





              "Das" is the subject. "meine Familie" is the Subjektsprädikativ.

              – tofro
              Mar 7 at 16:58




              2




              2





              Nope to your second question. It's true for "sein" in many cases, but "haben" would ask for accusative.

              – tofro
              Mar 7 at 16:59





              Nope to your second question. It's true for "sein" in many cases, but "haben" would ask for accusative.

              – tofro
              Mar 7 at 16:59











              3














              It is Nominativ - you can ask "wer?" (who) - Wer ist das? Das ist meine Familie.



              If the sentence was "Ich sehe meine Familie", it would be Akkustaiv, for you could ask "wen sehe ich?" (whom do I see?).



              Unfortunately for foreign learners of German, the "meine Familie" looks the same in both cases.






              share|improve this answer



























                3














                It is Nominativ - you can ask "wer?" (who) - Wer ist das? Das ist meine Familie.



                If the sentence was "Ich sehe meine Familie", it would be Akkustaiv, for you could ask "wen sehe ich?" (whom do I see?).



                Unfortunately for foreign learners of German, the "meine Familie" looks the same in both cases.






                share|improve this answer

























                  3












                  3








                  3







                  It is Nominativ - you can ask "wer?" (who) - Wer ist das? Das ist meine Familie.



                  If the sentence was "Ich sehe meine Familie", it would be Akkustaiv, for you could ask "wen sehe ich?" (whom do I see?).



                  Unfortunately for foreign learners of German, the "meine Familie" looks the same in both cases.






                  share|improve this answer













                  It is Nominativ - you can ask "wer?" (who) - Wer ist das? Das ist meine Familie.



                  If the sentence was "Ich sehe meine Familie", it would be Akkustaiv, for you could ask "wen sehe ich?" (whom do I see?).



                  Unfortunately for foreign learners of German, the "meine Familie" looks the same in both cases.







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered Mar 7 at 16:52









                  Volker LandgrafVolker Landgraf

                  2,070121




                  2,070121





















                      1














                      I agree with the other answers but I will try to explain why it is so confusing for English and French speakers.



                      1. English: We can't tell the difference between nominative and accusative at all for nouns and adjectives, so our understanding is based solely on pronoun examples. We are taught at school to say That's I "Das ist ich" but most people say That's me. We are taught that this is wrong (despite it being normal, and therefore right by definition according to some people) on the same grounds that "das is mich" would be wrong. However, although English is considered to be a Germanic language (and so should use the same rules as German) it is heavily influenced by French (see 2 below) and the Celtic languages (see 3 below), and these influences probably explain (in my opinion) why we normally say That's me.


                      2. French: Normally they distinguish nominative and accusative for pronouns, e.g. je "ich" versus me "mich" (or "mir") but in certain situations they use a special, caseless form moi "ich/mich/mir" so when they say C'est moi you cannot tell what case the moi is and it does look more like "mich" than "ich". It is easy to see how C'est moi could have become It's me in English.


                      3. The various Celtic languages use cases to varying degrees, but what they all have in common is a complete lack of distinction between nominative and accusative, applying to nouns, adjectives and pronouns. Thus a Scots Gaelic speaker, for example, when first learning English, would be tempted to translate 'S mì as [It]'s me as it sounds almost the same even though corresponds to both "ich" and "mich".






                      share|improve this answer



























                        1














                        I agree with the other answers but I will try to explain why it is so confusing for English and French speakers.



                        1. English: We can't tell the difference between nominative and accusative at all for nouns and adjectives, so our understanding is based solely on pronoun examples. We are taught at school to say That's I "Das ist ich" but most people say That's me. We are taught that this is wrong (despite it being normal, and therefore right by definition according to some people) on the same grounds that "das is mich" would be wrong. However, although English is considered to be a Germanic language (and so should use the same rules as German) it is heavily influenced by French (see 2 below) and the Celtic languages (see 3 below), and these influences probably explain (in my opinion) why we normally say That's me.


                        2. French: Normally they distinguish nominative and accusative for pronouns, e.g. je "ich" versus me "mich" (or "mir") but in certain situations they use a special, caseless form moi "ich/mich/mir" so when they say C'est moi you cannot tell what case the moi is and it does look more like "mich" than "ich". It is easy to see how C'est moi could have become It's me in English.


                        3. The various Celtic languages use cases to varying degrees, but what they all have in common is a complete lack of distinction between nominative and accusative, applying to nouns, adjectives and pronouns. Thus a Scots Gaelic speaker, for example, when first learning English, would be tempted to translate 'S mì as [It]'s me as it sounds almost the same even though corresponds to both "ich" and "mich".






                        share|improve this answer

























                          1












                          1








                          1







                          I agree with the other answers but I will try to explain why it is so confusing for English and French speakers.



                          1. English: We can't tell the difference between nominative and accusative at all for nouns and adjectives, so our understanding is based solely on pronoun examples. We are taught at school to say That's I "Das ist ich" but most people say That's me. We are taught that this is wrong (despite it being normal, and therefore right by definition according to some people) on the same grounds that "das is mich" would be wrong. However, although English is considered to be a Germanic language (and so should use the same rules as German) it is heavily influenced by French (see 2 below) and the Celtic languages (see 3 below), and these influences probably explain (in my opinion) why we normally say That's me.


                          2. French: Normally they distinguish nominative and accusative for pronouns, e.g. je "ich" versus me "mich" (or "mir") but in certain situations they use a special, caseless form moi "ich/mich/mir" so when they say C'est moi you cannot tell what case the moi is and it does look more like "mich" than "ich". It is easy to see how C'est moi could have become It's me in English.


                          3. The various Celtic languages use cases to varying degrees, but what they all have in common is a complete lack of distinction between nominative and accusative, applying to nouns, adjectives and pronouns. Thus a Scots Gaelic speaker, for example, when first learning English, would be tempted to translate 'S mì as [It]'s me as it sounds almost the same even though corresponds to both "ich" and "mich".






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                          I agree with the other answers but I will try to explain why it is so confusing for English and French speakers.



                          1. English: We can't tell the difference between nominative and accusative at all for nouns and adjectives, so our understanding is based solely on pronoun examples. We are taught at school to say That's I "Das ist ich" but most people say That's me. We are taught that this is wrong (despite it being normal, and therefore right by definition according to some people) on the same grounds that "das is mich" would be wrong. However, although English is considered to be a Germanic language (and so should use the same rules as German) it is heavily influenced by French (see 2 below) and the Celtic languages (see 3 below), and these influences probably explain (in my opinion) why we normally say That's me.


                          2. French: Normally they distinguish nominative and accusative for pronouns, e.g. je "ich" versus me "mich" (or "mir") but in certain situations they use a special, caseless form moi "ich/mich/mir" so when they say C'est moi you cannot tell what case the moi is and it does look more like "mich" than "ich". It is easy to see how C'est moi could have become It's me in English.


                          3. The various Celtic languages use cases to varying degrees, but what they all have in common is a complete lack of distinction between nominative and accusative, applying to nouns, adjectives and pronouns. Thus a Scots Gaelic speaker, for example, when first learning English, would be tempted to translate 'S mì as [It]'s me as it sounds almost the same even though corresponds to both "ich" and "mich".







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                          answered Mar 8 at 3:13









                          David RobinsonDavid Robinson

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