Learn German

I don’t get it! It’s like rocket science for me, and I’m trying to learn german, but this is kind of holding me back, so if you can speak German (Preferably your second language) and English as your first, can you explain it to me, all is appreciated, thanks a bunch!

It is not rocket science. Just a different language. Sometimes people keep themselves from learning by erecting barriers inside their head ("I just can’t understand this and never will").

I have recycled an old answer of mine here:

Every complete sentence has to have at least 2 parts, a noun which is the creature or thing that performs the action (nominative) and a conjugated verb that describes the action.
"A bird sings" – "Ein Vogel singt"

Now sometimes the sentence would be incomplete like in "The man gives" – "Der Mann gibt." Immediately you ask yourself: What does he give? (Wen oder was gibt er?= accusative or direct object) To whom does he give it? (Wem gibt er es? = dative or indirect object)
You need objects of the action described by the verb, and that’s where the other cases come in. It becomes clearer if you substitute the nouns by their pronouns.
"Er gibt den Hund dem Mädchen" He gives the dog to the girl.
"Er gibt ihn ihr" He gives it (him) to her.

English does not make a case difference in the objective form of the pronoun (me, him, her) and "you" and "it" both have no separate objective forms.

The direct or accusative object is the one that becomes the subject of the sentence when you put it into the passive voice: "The boy whistles a tune" > "The tune is whistled by the boy"

Most of the time "To him/ her/ it" corresponds to a dative case in German, but you have to be careful because verbs are differently used in either language.
"I help her (the woman)" – (direct object)
"Ich helfe ihr (der Frau = dative) – (indirect object)
The dative case is recognised by the female article "die" changing to "der" in the singular. Male and neuter nouns change their article from "der/das" to "dem" in the singular and all 3 genders have "den" in the plural.

Very rarely there used to be verbs that take a genitive object. They are now obsolete, only used in religious and state ceremonies: "Wir gedenken der Toten" (we remember the dead)

The genitive case is the easiest one, it denotes possession or belonging to, the same as in English. "the king’s horses" "die Pferde des Königs". Like in English with "of", in spoken German it is increasingly substituted by "von" + dative "die Pferde vom König"

Adjective endings sometimes change when the article changes from definite to indefinite.
The following pattern works for all adjectives without exception (very rare for German grammar ).

Singular:
Nominative:
ein guter Mann – der gute Mann
eine gute Frau – die gute Frau
ein gutes Kind – das gute Kind

Accusative:
einen guten Mann – den guten Mann
eine gute Frau – die gute Frau
ein gutes Kind – das gute Kind

Dative:
einem guten Mann – dem guten Mann
einer guten Frau – der guten Frau
einem guten Kind – dem guten Kind

Genitive:
eines guten Mannes – des guten Mannes
einer guten Frau – der guten Frau
eines guten Kindes – des guten Kindes

Plural:
Nominative:
gute Männer – die guten Männer
gute Frauen – die guten Frauen
gute Kinder – die guten Kinder

Accusative:
gute Männer – die guten Männer
gute Frauen – die guten Frauen
gute Kinder – die guten Kinder

Dative:
guten Männern – den guten Männern
guten Frauen – den guten Frauen
guten Kindern – den guten Kindern

Genitive:
guter Männer – der guten Männer
guter Frauen – der guten Frauen
guter Kinder – der guten Kinder

a good site for grammar:

http://class.georgiasouthern.edu/german/grammar/grammar.htm

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