Der Nominativ
German has four grammatical cases. The nominative is the subject case — it marks who or what is performing the action. Articles in the nominative are the forms you've already learnt: der/die/das, ein/eine/ein.
der (masc), die (fem), das (neuter), die (plural)
ein (masc), eine (fem), ein (neuter)
The subject is ALWAYS in the nominative.
After 'sein' (to be), the complement is also nominative: Er ist ein Arzt.
✅ Ask yourself: 'Who/what is doing the action?' → That's the nominative.
Der Hund = nominative (subject). den Mann = accusative (object).
💡 A neat trick: the nominative and accusative are identical EXCEPT for masculine nouns, where der→den and ein→einen. Focus your energy on masculine case changes.
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