Just as some verbs demand a particular case on their object (helfen takes the dative, gedenken takes the genitive), some adjectives demand a particular case on the thing that completes them. Das ist mir wichtig ("that is important to me") forces the dative on mir; Er ist sich des Risikos bewusst ("he is aware of the risk") forces the genitive on des Risikos. This is called adjective government (Adjektivrektion), and it works exactly like verb government — the adjective is the boss, and it dictates the case of its complement.
English gives you almost no help here, because English marks none of this with case. "Important to me," "loyal to her," "aware of the risk" — English uses prepositions, and those prepositions do not map cleanly onto German cases. So the case has to be learned as part of each adjective. The good news, covered at the end, is that one big group follows a predictable logic rather than being a random list.
Dative adjectives: the largest group
The biggest set of case-governing adjectives takes the dative, and the dative usually marks the person concerned — the one for whom the quality holds true. These appear mostly as predicate adjectives (after sein, bleiben, werden).
| Adjective | Meaning | Example complement |
|---|---|---|
| wichtig | important (to) | Das ist mir wichtig. |
| egal | all the same (to), doesn't matter | Das ist mir egal. |
| treu | loyal, faithful (to) | Er blieb ihr treu. |
| ähnlich | similar (to) | Du bist deinem Vater ähnlich. |
| bekannt | known, familiar (to) | Der Name ist mir bekannt. |
| dankbar | grateful (to) | Ich bin dir dankbar. |
| böse | angry (at) | Bist du mir böse? |
| nahe | close (to) | Sie stand dem Tod nahe. |
| peinlich | embarrassing (to) | Das war mir sehr peinlich. |
| fremd | foreign, strange (to) | Diese Welt ist ihm fremd. |
Deine Meinung ist mir wichtig — sag mir ehrlich, was du denkst.
Your opinion is important to me — tell me honestly what you think.
Ob wir heute oder morgen fahren, ist mir völlig egal.
Whether we go today or tomorrow is completely all the same to me.
Trotz allem ist er seiner Frau immer treu geblieben.
Despite everything, he always stayed faithful to his wife.
Mit der kurzen Nase sieht das Kind seinem Großvater erstaunlich ähnlich.
With its short nose, the child looks remarkably similar to its grandfather.
The dative complement is most often a pronoun — mir, dir, ihm, ihr, uns, ihnen — because we are usually talking about how something strikes a person. That is precisely why English speakers go wrong: English says "important to me," and the word "me" looks like an object, tempting you toward the accusative mich. German wants the dative mir.
Genitive adjectives: formal and reflexive
A smaller, more formal group takes the genitive, almost always in the pattern sich + genitive + adjective ("to be _ of something"). These belong to careful, written, or elevated register.
| Adjective | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| bewusst | aware (of) | sich des Risikos bewusst |
| sicher | sure, certain (of) | sich des Erfolgs sicher |
| würdig | worthy (of) | des Preises würdig |
| schuldig | guilty (of) | des Diebstahls schuldig |
| verdächtig | suspected (of) | des Mordes verdächtig |
| müde | tired, weary (of) | des Wartens müde (literary) |
Sie war sich des Risikos durchaus bewusst, als sie kündigte.
She was fully aware of the risk when she quit.
Da bin ich mir meiner Sache ganz sicher.
There I'm completely sure of my position.
Das Gericht befand ihn des Betrugs schuldig.
The court found him guilty of fraud.
These constructions sound formal, and in everyday speech Germans usually swap the genitive for a preposition: Ich bin mir des Risikos bewusst tends to become Ich weiß ja, dass es riskant ist in casual talk. But in writing, legal language, and careful speech, the genitive adjective is alive and well — des Mordes verdächtig, des Amtes würdig — and you must recognize it.
Accusative of measure
A third pattern uses the accusative to express a measurement — how long, wide, heavy, old, or worth something is. The measurement noun phrase stands in the accusative directly before the adjective.
| Adjective | Measure phrase (accusative) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| breit | einen Meter breit | one meter wide |
| alt | zwei Jahre alt | two years old |
| wert | einen Euro wert | worth one euro |
| lang | einen Kilometer lang | one kilometer long |
| schwer | drei Kilo schwer | three kilos heavy |
Der Tisch ist genau einen Meter breit.
The table is exactly one meter wide.
Unser Sohn ist erst zwei Jahre alt.
Our son is only two years old.
Diese alte Münze ist heute mehrere Hundert Euro wert.
This old coin is worth several hundred euros today.
The accusative here is the same accusative German uses for spans and measures generally (Ich warte einen Moment, "I'll wait a moment"). It is not the adjective "demanding" a case in the same sense as treu + dative — it is the measure phrase that is accusative — but learners need to recognize that ein Meter surfaces as the accusative einen Meter in front of breit, lang, hoch, and friends.
The underlying logic: dative of interest
Here is the insight that turns a memorization slog into a productive pattern. Many predicate adjectives that govern the dative do so because the dative person is the one affected — the experiencer or beneficiary of the quality. This is the same dative of interest that powers expressions like Mir ist kalt ("I'm cold," literally "to-me is cold") and Das tut mir leid ("I'm sorry," literally "that does to-me sorrow").
| Adjective | Why dative |
|---|---|
| wichtig, egal, peinlich, recht | states how something strikes / affects the person |
| möglich, klar, unangenehm | states how something is for the person |
| treu, dankbar, böse, ähnlich | relates the subject toward the person |
Es tut mir leid, aber das ist mir heute einfach nicht möglich.
I'm sorry, but that's simply not possible for me today.
War dir das nicht unangenehm?
Wasn't that unpleasant for you?
Once you see wichtig, egal, peinlich, möglich, unangenehm, recht, leicht, and schwer as a single family — all describing how a situation lands on a person — you can predict the dative even on an adjective you have never used in this frame before. That is far more powerful than a flashcard list, and it is exactly the kind of generalization native speakers run on without thinking.
Common Mistakes
❌ Das ist mich wichtig.
Incorrect — 'important to me' takes the dative, not the accusative.
✅ Das ist mir wichtig.
That is important to me.
❌ Er ist seine Frau treu geblieben.
Incorrect — 'treu' governs the dative: seiner Frau.
✅ Er ist seiner Frau treu geblieben.
He stayed faithful to his wife.
❌ Du siehst dein Vater ähnlich.
Incorrect — 'ähnlich' takes the dative: deinem Vater.
✅ Du siehst deinem Vater ähnlich.
You look similar to your father.
❌ Ich war mir das Risiko bewusst.
Incorrect — 'bewusst' governs the genitive: des Risikos.
✅ Ich war mir des Risikos bewusst.
I was aware of the risk.
❌ Der Tisch ist ein Meter breit.
Incorrect — the measure phrase stands in the accusative: einen Meter.
✅ Der Tisch ist einen Meter breit.
The table is one meter wide.
Key Takeaways
- Some adjectives govern a case on their complement, just like verbs do — you must learn the case with the word.
- The largest group takes the dative, usually a pronoun (mir, dir, ihm): wichtig, egal, treu, ähnlich, dankbar, böse, peinlich.
- A formal group takes the genitive, often reflexively: sich des Risikos bewusst, des Erfolgs sicher, des Betrugs schuldig.
- Measure phrases take the accusative before adjectives like breit, lang, alt, wert: einen Meter breit, zwei Jahre alt.
- Many dative adjectives follow the dative-of-interest logic — they describe how a situation affects a person — so the pattern is predictable, not arbitrary.
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Dative VerbsB1 — The common German verbs that take a single dative object instead of the expected accusative, and how to remember them.
- The Dative of Interest and Free DativesB2 — The 'free' datives that aren't required by the verb — dative of interest, the possessive dative with body parts, and the ethical dative.
- The Dative CaseA2 — What the dative case is, how its articles and pronouns change, and how to use it for the indirect object.
- The Genitive CaseB1 — How German marks possession and relation with the genitive — its article forms, the -(e)s ending on masculine and neuter nouns, and why it follows the noun it modifies.
- Adjective vs Adverb: One Form, Two JobsA2 — Why German uses the same bare word for predicate adjectives and adverbs of manner — there is no -ly ending, so 'good' and 'well' are both gut.