Reference · module 10
Giving, helping, belonging
Everything this module explains, on one page.
dem, der, dem, den
Recognise the dative article and say who something is for.
- You already know der, die, das. German has a second set for the person something is given to, said to, or done for: dem Mann, der Frau, dem Kind. Masculine and neuter share dem.
- Notice the trap: der Frau. The word looks like the masculine nominative you learned first, but here it is feminine and dative. Same spelling, opposite job.
- The plural adds an -n to the noun itself: den Kindern, den Freunden. It is the only case that changes the noun and not just the article, so it is the one that gives you away.
The mistake you are about to make
mit den Freunde
mit den Freunden
English changes nothing but the word order for this. German changes the article and, in the plural, the noun as well: den Freunden. That extra -n is what gives a learner away.
mit, nach, aus, bei
Use the prepositions that always take the dative, without thinking about it.
- Some prepositions never take anything but the dative: mit, nach, aus, bei, seit, von, zu. Learn them as a list and the article after them is decided for you.
- zu and nach both mean to, and they split by destination. nach goes with cities and countries: nach Berlin. zu goes with people and places: zum Arzt, zur Schule.
- seit says how long something has been going on, and German puts it in the present: Ich wohne seit zwei Jahren hier. Not I have lived — I live, since two years.
The mistake you are about to make
Ich habe hier seit zwei Jahren gewohnt.
Ich wohne seit zwei Jahren hier.
English needs a perfect here — "I have lived here for two years" — so a German past will follow it out. You still live there, so German keeps the present: ich wohne.
helfen, danken, gefallen
Use the verbs that take a person in the dative instead of an object.
- A handful of common verbs take their person in the dative, not the accusative: helfen, danken, antworten, gehören, gefallen, schmecken. There is no rule behind the list. It is simply the list.
- gefallen turns the sentence around. Das Buch gefällt mir is literally the book pleases me — the thing is the subject and you are the one in the dative.
- schmecken works the same way for food, and gehören for belonging: Das Auto gehört meinem Bruder. The owner is dative, the thing owned is the subject.
The mistake you are about to make
Ich gefalle das Buch.
Das Buch gefällt mir.
English says "I like the book" with you as the subject, so ich will open the sentence. German turns it around: the book does the pleasing and you sit in the dative.
mir, dir, ihm, ihr
Replace a person with a pronoun without dropping into the accusative.
- mir, dir, ihm, ihr, uns, euch, ihnen. Notice ihm for he and ihr for she — they are the ones that look least like the words you already know.
- When both objects are pronouns, the order flips: Ich gebe es ihm. The thing comes first. With a noun in play, the person stays first: Ich gebe ihm das Buch.
- mich or mir is the question most often got wrong. mich is what a verb acts on; mir is who it is done for. Er sieht mich, er hilft mir.
The mistake you are about to make
Er hilft mich.
Er hilft mir.
English has one "me" for both jobs, so nothing warns you which German word to pick. Er sieht mich is the one being seen; er hilft mir is the one being helped.
Putting the dative to work
Hold a short exchange where every second sentence needs a dative.
- wer asks who does something. wem asks who it is done for. Wem gehört das? — whose is this? It is the question word of the whole case.
- Two sentences will carry you through most shops and offices: Können Sie mir helfen? and Ich suche einen Arzt. The first is dative, the second is not, and hearing the difference is the point.
The mistake you are about to make
Wessen ist das?
Wem gehört das?
"Whose is this?" points straight at wessen. It exists and it sounds bookish. The everyday German question asks who the thing belongs to: Wem gehört das?