Usages of der Tisch
der Kantinentisch
the canteen table
ein Tisch
a table
Er setzt sich an einen kleinen Tisch.
He sits down at a little table.
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.
Er sitzt an einem kleinen Tisch.
He sits at a little table.
Now he finished the process of sitting down, he is situated at the table. We are no longer talking about the direction of a movement but about the location, where the man is at.
an einem kleinen Tisch
is Dative
When we want to describe a location, we use prepositions followed by a dative.
in einem Café
an einem Tisch
Er setzt sich an einen kleinen Tisch in der Ecke.
He sits down at a little table in the corner.
He is sitting down. (direction >accusative)
The table is standing in the corner (location>dative)
It would be a different case if we said:
He sits down in the corner.
In this case we would have a movement into the corner. >Accusative
Er setzt sich in die Ecke.
der Nachbartisch
the neighbour table
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching German grammar and vocabulary.