Nominative Case

The nominative case is used to indicate the subject of a sentence - the person or thing performing the action.

The nominative case serves two primary functions in German:

Indicates the subject in a sentence

Example: Der Mann liest ein Buch. (The man reads a book.)

Here, Der Mann is in the nominative case because it's the subject performing the action of reading.

The "who" or "what" that performs the action

Example: Mein Handy liegt auf dem Sofa. (My cell phone is lying on the sofa.)

Here, Mein Handy is in the nominative case because it's the subject (the "what") performing the action of lying on the sofa.

Nominative Case Endings

Articles and determiners in German change their form based on the gender, number, and case of the noun they accompany:

ㅤ	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Definite Article	der der Mann	die die Frau	das das Kind	die die Kinder
Indefinite Article	ein ein Mann	eine eine Frau	ein ein Kind	-
Demonstrative Determiner	dieser dieser Mann	diese diese Frau	dieses dieses Kind	diese diese Kinder
Possessive Determiner	mein mein Mann	meine meine Frau	mein mein Kind	meine meine Kinder

Pronouns in the Nominative Case

Pronouns replace nouns and also change form based on case.

Here are the nominative pronouns in German:

Personal pronouns

These are used to replace nouns referring to people or things:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st Person	ich (I)	wir (we)
2nd Person informal	du (you)	ihr (you all)
2nd Person formal	Sie (you)	Sie (you all)
3rd Person	er/sie/es (he/she/it)	sie (they)

Examples:

Ich lerne Deutsch. (I am learning German.)

Er kauft ein neues Auto. (He is buying a new car.)

Sie sprechen sehr gut Deutsch. (You speak German very well.)

Demonstrative pronouns

These correspond to "this" or "these" in English and must match the gender and number of the noun they replace.

Gender	Singular	Example
Masculine	dieser	Dieser ist gut. (This one is good.)
Feminine	diese	Diese ist schön. (This one is beautiful.)
Neuter	dieses	Dieses ist neu. (This one is new.)
Plural	diese	Diese sind alt. (These are old.)

Nominative case usage

Subject-verb word order in statements

The subject (in the nominative case) typically comes before the verb, similar to English.

German	English
Der Hund bellt.	The dog barks.
Die Kinder spielen.	The children play.

Structure: Subject + Verb + (Rest of the sentence)

Question Formation with the Nominative Case

In yes/no questions, the verb comes first, followed by the subject in the nominative case:

German	English
Wohnt deine Schwester in München?	Does your sister live in Munich?
Ist das Buch interessant?	Is the book interesting?

Structure: Verb + Subject + (Rest of the question)

In information questions (with question words), the question word comes first, followed by the verb, and then the subject in nominative case:

German	English
Wer ist dieser Mann?	Who is this man?
Was macht deine Schwester?	What is your sister doing?
Wo wohnt er?	Where does he live?

Structure: Question word + Verb + Subject + (Rest of the question)

Nominative case with linking verbs

The nominative case is always used after certain verbs when linking subjects to predicates that describe the same entity

Verb	Example	Translation
sein (to be)	Mein Vater ist ein berühmter Musiker.	My father is a famous musician.
werden (to become)	Die Stadt wird ein Zentrum für Technologie.	The city is becoming a center for technology.
scheinen (to seem)	Das scheint ein Problem zu sein.	That seems to be a problem.
bleiben (to remain)	Er bleibt mein Freund.	He remains my friend.

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In these cases, both the subject and the predicate noun (the noun after the verb) are in the nominative case because they refer to the same person or thing.