Errands
Bad bullies!
There is a group of verbs in German that bully the receiver of the action into using the dative!
Ich danke der Frau.
I thank the woman.
Ihr helft ihm.
You guys help him.
Normally you’d expect accusative. But not with these special verbs!
The verbs gehen and sein also sometimes make things dative when you talk about how people are feeling!
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.
Dative Pronouns
Some words have special dative forms — for example, ich changes to mir!
| ich | mir |
| du | dir |
| er | ihm |
| sie | ihr |
| es | ihm |
| wir | uns |
| ihr | euch |
| sie | ihnen |