Practically, German has only three cases, though, even if some uptight formalists (who likely use a pair of pincers to pull up their pants) will greatly bemoan the simple fact of life that the genitive does not exist in the wild.
But there are plenty of common expressions that use the genitive:
Trotz des Regens gingen wir spazieren.
Während des Essens hat er angerufen.
Wegen des Staus kam sie zu spät.
Außerhalb des formellen Schriftverkehrs ist der Genitiv selten.
Ich bin mir meiner Sache sicher.
usw.
Using the dative with “von” would just be incorrect here. I certainly use and hear the genitive regularly, at least within these expressions. But maybe I am just one of those uptight formalists 🤷 — I always thought the genitive was rather elegant.
I do admit that there are some everyday situations in which it sounds clunky though…
Practically, German has only three cases, though, even if some uptight formalists (who likely use a pair of pincers to pull up their pants) will greatly bemoan the simple fact of life that the genitive does not exist in the wild.
But there are plenty of common expressions that use the genitive:
Using the dative with “von” would just be incorrect here. I certainly use and hear the genitive regularly, at least within these expressions. But maybe I am just one of those uptight formalists 🤷 — I always thought the genitive was rather elegant.
I do admit that there are some everyday situations in which it sounds clunky though…