Lesson 44: Appointments with the Nominative and Accusative Cases

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make a simple appointment in German over the phone. This is useful when calling a doctor’s office, hair salon, language school, or another service.

You’ll also learn a small but important grammar point: the difference between nominative and accusative articles.

What you’ll learn

• How to say you want to make an appointment
• How to ask if an appointment is available
• How to understand simple appointment times
• How to say whether a time works for you
• How der Termin becomes einen Termin
• How nominative and accusative articles work in simple sentences

The situation

Imagine you are calling a doctor’s office.

You do not need complicated German. You only need a few practical phrases.

Ich möchte einen Termin machen.
I want to make an appointment.

Haben Sie einen Termin frei?
Do you have an appointment available?

Wann haben Sie Zeit?
When do you have time?

Das passt leider nicht.
Unfortunately, that does not work.

Ja, das passt.
Yes, that works.

Important appointment words

The most important word in this lesson is:

der Termin = the appointment

You will see it in two forms:

der Termin
einen Termin

That is because German articles can change depending on how the noun is used in the sentence.

Saying you want an appointment

Use:

Ich möchte einen Termin machen.
I want to make an appointment.

This sentence is built like this:

Notice the word order:

Ich möchte einen Termin machen.

The verb möchte comes early.
The second verb machen goes at the end.

You have seen this pattern before:

Ich möchte Deutsch lernen.
I want to learn German.

Nominative and accusative: the simple idea

German has something called cases.

For now, you only need two:

Nominative = the noun doing the action
Accusative = the noun receiving the action

A very simple way to think about it:

• Who or what is doing something? → nominative
• Who or what is being used, wanted, bought, needed, or made? → accusative

Look at this sentence:

Der Termin ist am Montag.
The appointment is on Monday.

Here, der Termin is the main thing in the sentence. It is not being wanted, bought, or made. So it stays nominative:

der Termin

Now look at this sentence:

Ich möchte einen Termin machen.
I want to make an appointment.

Here, Ich is the person doing the action.
Termin is the thing I want to make.

So Termin is accusative:

einen Termin

Definite articles: nominative vs. accusative

Definite articles mean the.

The important beginner takeaway:

Only masculine changes in the accusative:

der → den

Examples:

Der Termin ist am Montag.
The appointment is on Monday.

Ich suche den Termin.
I am looking for the appointment.

Indefinite articles: nominative vs. accusative

Indefinite articles mean a or an.

Again, the important beginner takeaway:

Only masculine changes in the accusative:

ein → einen

Examples:

Ein Termin ist frei.
An appointment is available.

Ich möchte einen Termin machen.
I want to make an appointment.

How Accusative Works in Appointment Phrases

The word Termin is masculine:

der Termin

So when it is the thing you want, have, or ask for, you often see:

einen Termin

Useful chunks:

einen Termin machen = to make an appointment
einen Termin haben = to have an appointment
einen Termin frei haben = to have an appointment available
einen anderen Termin haben = to have another appointment

Examples:

Ich möchte einen Termin machen.
I want to make an appointment.

Ich habe einen Termin.
I have an appointment.

Haben Sie einen Termin frei?
Do you have an appointment available?

Asking if an appointment is available

A useful question is:

Haben Sie einen Termin frei?
Do you have an appointment available?

This is polite because it uses Sie.

Break it down:

You may hear:

Wir haben einen Termin frei.
We have an appointment available.

Am Montag ist ein Termin frei.
An appointment is available on Monday.

Notice the difference:

Wir haben einen Termin frei.
Here, the office has an appointment. The appointment is the object, so it is einen Termin.

Ein Termin ist frei.
Here, the appointment is the subject of the sentence, so it is ein Termin.

Understanding office responses

When you call, the person may say:

Einen Moment bitte.
One moment, please.

Ich schaue nach.
I’ll check.

Wann haben Sie Zeit?
When do you have time?

Morgens oder nachmittags?
Morning or afternoon?

Wir haben am Montag einen Termin frei.
We have an appointment available on Monday.

Saying when you have time

You can answer with a short phrase.

Morgens, bitte.
In the morning, please.

Nachmittags, bitte.
In the afternoon, please.

Am Montag, bitte.
On Monday, please.

Ich habe nachmittags Zeit.
I have time in the afternoon.

Ich habe um 14 Uhr Zeit.
I have time at 2:00 p.m.

Saying a time does not work

Sometimes the suggested time is not good for you.

Use:

Das passt leider nicht.
Unfortunately, that does not work.

This is a useful polite phrase.

You can also ask:

Haben Sie einen anderen Termin?
Do you have another appointment?

Here again, Termin is masculine and accusative:

einen anderen Termin

You do not need to master adjective endings yet. Just learn this as a useful phrase.

Confirming the appointment

When the time works, you can say:

Ja, das passt.
Yes, that works.

Das ist gut.
That is good.

Vielen Dank.
Thank you very much.

You may hear:

Ihr Termin ist am Mittwoch um 10 Uhr.
Your appointment is on Wednesday at 10 o’clock.

Here, Ihr Termin means your appointment in a formal situation.

Asking someone to repeat

On the phone, it is normal to miss something.

Use phrases you already know:

Noch einmal, bitte.
One more time, please.

Langsamer, bitte.
More slowly, please.

You can also say:

Können Sie das wiederholen?
Can you repeat that?

Fill-in-the-blank sentences