Learn Hardcore German: Mein Bruder zeigt meiner Mutter das neue Buch.

Nominative: meine Mutter – Meine Mutter liest. (My mother reads.)
Accusative: meine Mutter – Ich sehe meine Mutter.
Dative: meiner Mutter – Ich helfe meiner Mutter. / Ich zeige meiner Mutter das Buch.
Genitive: meiner Mutter – Das ist das Auto meiner Mutter.

What cases do the different parts of the sentence have?

Sentence: Mein Bruder zeigt meiner Mutter das neue Buch.

Mein Bruder – nominative (subject)
- Who is doing the action? → mein Bruder
meiner Mutter – dative (indirect object)
- To whom is something shown? → meiner Mutter
das neue Buch – accusative (direct object)
- What is being shown? → das neue Buch

So the structure is:

Subject (Nom) – Verb – Indirect Object (Dat) – Direct Object (Acc)

Why is it das neue Buch and not dem neuen Buch?

Because das neue Buch is the direct object, so it is in the accusative case, not dative.

For the neuter noun Buch:

Nominative: das Buch
Accusative: das Buch
Dative: dem Buch
Genitive: des Buches

In this sentence, the thing being shown is the book, so:

das Buch → accusative (direct object)
meiner Mutter → dative (indirect object)

If you changed it to dem neuen Buch, the meaning would change (it would now be dative, e.g. er gibt dem neuen Buch einen Titel).

Why is the adjective neue and not neues or neuen?

The form neue is required because:

Buch is neuter, singular.
The article das is a definite article.
The whole phrase das neue Buch is in the accusative.

With a definite article, adjectives take the weak declension. For neuter singular with das (both nominative and accusative), the adjective ending is -e:

Nominative: das neue Buch
Accusative: das neue Buch

Compare:

ein neues Buch (indefinite article – ending -es)
dieses neue Buch (demonstrative – dieses already shows case, so neue stays weak)

So das neue Buch is the correct form here.

Could I also say Mein Bruder zeigt das neue Buch meiner Mutter? Is there a difference?

Yes, Mein Bruder zeigt das neue Buch meiner Mutter is also grammatically correct.

Mein Bruder zeigt meiner Mutter das neue Buch.
- Indirect object (meiner Mutter) before direct object (das neue Buch)
- This is the most typical neutral order in German:
  Dative (IO) → Accusative (DO)
Mein Bruder zeigt das neue Buch meiner Mutter.
- Direct object before indirect object
- Still correct, but can sound a bit more like you are emphasizing das neue Buch (the thing) rather than the person.

General tendencies in German main clauses:

If one object is a pronoun (e.g. ihm, es, sie), the pronoun usually comes earlier:
- Mein Bruder zeigt es meiner Mutter.
If both are full nouns (like here), you have some flexibility. The dative-before-accusative order is the most neutral and common.

Does this sentence mean “My brother shows my mother the new book” or “My brother is showing my mother the new book”?

It can mean both. German uses the same present tense form for:

He shows
He is showing

So:

Mein Bruder zeigt meiner Mutter das neue Buch.
can be translated as either:
- My brother shows my mother the new book.
- My brother is showing my mother the new book.

If you really want to emphasize the ongoing action, you can add an expression like:

Mein Bruder ist gerade dabei, meiner Mutter das neue Buch zu zeigen.
(My brother is in the process of showing my mother the new book.)

Does zeigen always take both a dative and an accusative object?

Often, but not always.

The common pattern is:

jemandem (dative – person)
etwas (accusative – thing)

Examples:

Ich zeige dir den Weg. – I show you the way.
Sie zeigt ihrem Vater das Foto. – She shows her father the photo.

But you can also use zeigen with:

Only an accusative object:
- Er zeigt das Foto. – He shows the photo.
A reflexive and a prepositional phrase:
- Sie zeigt sich im Spiegel. – She looks at herself in the mirror.
No object, in a more abstract sense:
- Es zeigt sich, dass er recht hatte. – It turns out that he was right.

So in this sentence it uses the typical dative + accusative pattern, but that is not the only possible structure with zeigen.

Why is Bruder capitalized? Is that just because it starts the sentence?

Bruder is capitalized because it is a noun, and in German all nouns are capitalized, no matter where they appear in the sentence.

Examples:

der Bruder – the brother
die Mutter – the mother
das Buch – the book

Even in the middle of a sentence:

Ich sehe meinen Bruder.
Sie liest ein Buch.

So the capitalization in Mein Bruder zeigt meiner Mutter das neue Buch. is not just a sentence-start rule; it is the normal rule for nouns.

Why is there no article before meiner Mutter? Why not der meiner Mutter or something like that?

In German, possessive determiners like mein, deine, ihre, unser behave like articles. They replace the article; you do not use both.

So you say:

meine Mutter – my mother
der Mutter – the mother
but not:
❌ der meine Mutter

In your sentence:

meiner Mutter already includes the possessive mein-, so you do not add der or any other article.

The possessive changes its ending depending on case and gender:

Nominative: meine Mutter
Accusative: meine Mutter
Dative: meiner Mutter
Genitive: meiner Mutter

What exactly does mein mean here, and how does it change in other cases?

Mein means my and is a possessive determiner. It must agree with the noun’s gender, number, and case.

For Bruder (masculine, singular):

Nominative: mein Bruder – Mein Bruder kommt.
Accusative: meinen Bruder – Ich sehe meinen Bruder.
Dative: meinem Bruder – Ich helfe meinem Bruder.
Genitive: meines Bruders – Das ist das Auto meines Bruders.

In your sentence, mein Bruder is the subject, so nominative masculine singular → mein Bruder.

How would the sentence change if I replaced mein Bruder with ich?

You must change both the subject pronoun and the verb form:

Original: Mein Bruder zeigt meiner Mutter das neue Buch.
With ich: Ich zeige meiner Mutter das neue Buch.

Changes:

Mein Bruder (3rd person singular) → ich (1st person singular)
Verb zeigt (3rd person singular) → zeige (1st person singular)

The objects meiner Mutter (dative) and das neue Buch (accusative) stay the same.

How do I pronounce zeigt, and what does the -t at the end indicate?

Pronunciation of zeigt:

z = like ts in cats
ei = like eye
g here is part of -ig- but in this word you actually pronounce the whole zeigt roughly like tsaigt (IPA: [tsaɪ̯kt])

The -t at the end is the 3rd person singular present tense ending:

ich zeige – I show / am showing
du zeigst – you show
er/sie/es zeigt – he/she/it shows
wir zeigen – we show
ihr zeigt – you (pl.) show
sie zeigen – they show

So zeigt tells you the subject is he/she/it or a singular noun like mein Bruder.

Can the verb zeigt go at the end of this sentence?

In a main clause like this one, the finite verb must be in second position:

Mein Bruder zeigt meiner Mutter das neue Buch. ✅
Mein Bruder meiner Mutter das neue Buch zeigt. ❌ (in standard German)

However, in a subordinate clause, the finite verb does go to the end:

…, weil mein Bruder meiner Mutter das neue Buch zeigt.
(…, because my brother is showing my mother the new book.)

So:

Main clause: verb in second position → zeigt in 2nd place
Subordinate clause: verb in final position → zeigt at the end