Dative Pronouns · 3bc6188f83cee6ffd2fa7ef6ed3338e0
Bad bullies!
There is a group of verbs in German that act like bullies! They snatch the accusative endings away and force the receiver of the action to use the dative der word and ein word endings! They include danken, folgen, gehören, and helfen.
Ich danke der Frau.
I thank the woman.
Ihr helft ihm.
You guys help him.
The verbs gehen and sein also sometimes fall into this category when you’re talking about what someone is experiencing or how they’re feeling. Compare these sentences!
Mein Kind ist schlecht.My child is bad.
Meinem Kind ist schlecht.My child is not feeling well.
Der Junge geht zur Schule.The boy goes to school.
Den Kindern geht es gut. The children are well.
Literal: (For) the children, it goes good.
Dative Pronouns
When we need the dative case, some words change‑‑for example, ich changes to mir! You can use the der word pattern to remember what ending to use for some of them!
| ich I |
mir (to) me |
|---|---|
| du you |
dir (to) you |
| er he |
ihm (to) him |
| sie she |
ihr (to) her |
| es it |
ihm (to) him |
| wir we |
uns (to) us |
| ihr you all |
euch (to) you all |
| sie they |
ihnen (to) them |
Er bringt ihr Kaffee.He brings coffee (to) her.
Du sagst es ihm.You say it (to) him.