| 12.12 A short reflection on the Genitive |
The declination is not only difficult for those whose
mother tongue is not German, but also for those ones
who actually speak German as a mother tongue. For
instance the Berlin dialect includes that the direct
(Accusative) and the indirect object (Dative) are mixed.
Still they can be understood. Another issue is the Genitive.
As you have seen some forms are already not in use anymore
and actually the use of the Genitive is lessening constantly.
Your question might be how to describe then whose things
we are talking about. Well, quite easily and like most
of our European neighbours we help ourselves with a
preposition von.
| Das
ist das Auto von jemandem, den ich kenne. =
This is the car of somebody I know. Das ist das Auto von niemandem, den ich kenne. = This is the car of nobody I know. |
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This should be enough for now. More about prepositions and why the word jemand and niemand is in Dative (like an indirect object) you'll find in some prepositions
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