……
Note
an (at) is a preposition that can work with both dative and accusative case.Accusative is the case of movement towards a direction.
an einen kleinen Tisch
is accusative
He is moving into a sitting position at the table.
Don't worry at this stage too much about the forms. We will tackle that later, but try to grasp the idea of when to use the accusative.
Breakdown of Er setzt sich an einen kleinen Tisch.
klein
small
er
he
ein
a, an
sich setzen
to sit down
important: this is a movement towards a direction (down) you are standing and moving into a sitting position.
der Tisch
the table
an
on; to; at
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“How do German cases work?”
German has four grammatical cases: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object), and genitive (possession). The case determines the form of articles and adjectives. For example, "the dog" is "der Hund" as a subject but "den Hund" as a direct object.
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