38
votes
Accepted
Accusative vs Dative: "Schau in der/die Schublade!"
The confusion here comes from omitting a small word:
Schau in der Schublade nach.
Hence, in this example, the verb is nachschauen, in the other example it is schauen.
These differ a bit in ...
- 2,246
36
votes
Accepted
"Es gefällt ihm." How to identify similar exceptions?
It is not an exception or irregularity at all! Different grammar (from English or any other language) doesn’t constitute an irregularity. If you were an Italian or Russian then English “I like it” ...
- 4,668
25
votes
Accepted
Why does "fragen" take two accusatives?
Most sentence plans follow a few general rules. If there are multiple actants involved, typically the actant with the most active role is in the nominative case (subject), the actant with the least ...
- 7,758
24
votes
Accepted
Why do we use the dative case even when the object isn't receiving anything?
Blut im Auge (blood in the eye)
Where is the blood? - In the eye.
Mein Schlüssel ist im Auto. (My key is in the car.)
Where is the key? - In the car.
In both cases you are asking with "where" ...
- 126k
22
votes
Dativ or Akkusativ?
The question is '(the goddess) of whom?' or 'whose (godess)?', it is asking for possession. Consequently 'dieser Schule' is genitive.
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21
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Use of the dative on inscriptions
For the same reason you use to in an English dedication:
To my father
You wouldn't just put 'My father', since you're telling us who you are dedicating the book to, not what it is.
- 2,361
19
votes
Use of the dative on inscriptions
It's an ellipsis of
„Dieses Parlament ist dem deutschen Volk gewidmet“ (This parliament is dedicated to the German people).
Widmen requires a dativ object in German.
See here for a detailed ...
- 1,010
17
votes
"Es gefällt ihm." How to identify similar exceptions?
You have to compare the matching verbs in German and English.
Es gefällt ihm im Kindergarten sehr gut.
"It likes him in kindergarten a lot!"
"It pleases him in the kindergarten a lot."
Der ...
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17
votes
Dativ or Akkusativ?
It is neither accusative nor dative. It is a genitive attribute inside a nominal phrase which is in nominative case.
The question is not whom? but whose? (wessen?)
Wessen Schutzgottheit ist Hanako?
...
- 126k
16
votes
Accepted
Dative vs Accusative
The components of this sentence are:
ich
subject
personal pronoun, first person, singular, nominative case
spreche
predicate
verb (a form of "sprechen"), first person, singular, present tense
mit ...
- 126k
15
votes
Why does "fragen" take two accusatives?
There is no such thing as direct and indirect object in German. That's a concept from French which got shipped across The Channel. German instead has accusative, dative, genitive, and prepositional ...
- 64.6k
15
votes
Accepted
Is this sentence by Angela Merkel grammatically correct?
You are right, it should be aus gegebenem Anlass.
However: If you listen to the actual interview in the video (at around 0:40), which was linked in the article you mentioned, you can hear, that ...
- 1,104
15
votes
Accepted
Warum ist es "du kannst dir nicht vorstellen" und nicht "du kannst dich nicht vorstellen"?
Those are two very different meanings of the verb vorstellen.
sich[reflexive, dat] etwas[acc] vorstellen - to imagine/picture something; This use always requires both a dative reflexive pronoun and ...
- 933
15
votes
Accepted
Why do these sentences have different case despite being otherwise identical?
German has four cases (nominative, accusative, dative and genitive). Which case an object receives depends on the verb and has to be learned. We have an excellent list of verbs with a dative object.
...
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14
votes
Accepted
"Leider gibt es auf keinem keinen..." Ist das richtig geschrieben?
Leider gibt es auf keinem [Exemplar] keinen Sticker.
means that there is no exemplar without a sticker on it. So it is actually the opposite of what you want to express.
The correct way of saying ...
- 2,205
14
votes
Use of the dative on inscriptions
This is what's called a dativus finalis
It tends to denote purpose and thus means "this is for [the benefit of] the German people".
Latin knew the same notion, an example would be "tibi laetitiae", ...
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14
votes
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Lyrics translation: "Dalai Lama" by Rammstein
But I believe that the verb gehört requires the dativ …
Ordinarily you would be correct. In this case, however, we are not talking about simply gehören in the sense of belong to, but the collocation ...
- 19.3k
14
votes
Accepted
Can I use two prepositions with the same noun when one takes the dative and the other the accusative?
Your translation
Die Handlung findet in und um eine Kleinstadt statt.
isn't strictly grammatically correct but quite common and generally accepted.
If that bothers you, you can instead say
Die ...
- 3,757
13
votes
Accepted
Is it "seit ein paar Tagen" or "seit einen paar Tagen"?
"Ein" is a part of "ein paar" and "ein paar" is an unchangeable pronoun. That is why "ein" is not changed to "einem". Note that "Tagen" is dative.
If you would use "einige" or "wenige" (synonyms of "...
- 4,668
13
votes
"Warten Sie auf mich?"
"Auf ... warten" (meaning "to wait for ...") takes always the accusative case in German.
The dative case would indicate that you stand or sit somewhere while waiting,
say, "Ich warte auf der Bank (dat....
- 994
13
votes
Dativ oder Akkusativ für 'beibringen'?
Was im Wörterbuch steht entspricht hier den normalen Regeln der deutschen Sprache: jemandem (Dativ/Dativobjekt) etwas (Akkusative/Akkustivobjekt) beibringen.
Man muss den Satz aber richtig verstehen: ...
- 2,592
13
votes
„e“ am Ende eines Wortes einfügen
Das "e" wird nicht eingefügt, sondern noch nicht weggelassen.
Der Dativ Singular vieler (maskuliner) Nomen lautet paradigmatisch auf -e: "auf dem Tische", "vor dem Hause" ...
- 15.1k
13
votes
Accepted
Why does the dative case of "Kunde" have an "n"?
This is a special class of masculine nouns. There are actually two subtypes depending on the genitive singular. (Many grammars identify these classes using "strong/mixed/weak" labels, but I'...
- 12k
13
votes
Why does the dative case of "Kunde" have an "n"?
These nouns are, according to current terminology, referred to as belonging to the n-Deklination; searching for this term will get you many lists and explanations. Historically, they were referred to ...
- 27.4k
12
votes
Accepted
Wechselpräpositionen
There are exactly nine Wechselpräpositionen, an, auf, hinter, neben, in, über, unter, vor and zwischen. These mean a different thing when used either with dative or accusative.
What's right is ...
- 64.6k
12
votes
Accepted
Hat dir der Film gefallen? oder Hat du der Film gefallen?
The verb "gefallen" is used with dative. You can roughly think of it as "to be pleasant to somebody":
Dieses Buch gefällt mir - this book is pleasant to me
Der Schauspieler hat ...
- 4,668
12
votes
Accepted
Accusative or dative?
The first one gives a description about the location of the chair. That is why we need the dative (position).
"Der Stuhl steht am (an dem) Tisch".
"Er setzt sich auf einen Stuhl am Tisch"
This ...
- 18.6k
11
votes
Accepted
Declension of "Kinder" in "nicht nur für, sondern auch von Kinder(n)"
Du kannst schreiben:
Es stellte sich heraus, dass die Spielzeuge nicht nur für, sondern auch von Kindern produziert werden.
Erklärt wird das zum Beispiel bei canoo.net:
Wenn zwei Attribute oder ...
- 19k
11
votes
Accepted
Dativ oder Akkusativ?
To start with your first example, both of the following are correct; but they mean different things.
(i) Der Maler zeichnet ein Bild auf der Straße.
(ii) Der Maler zeichnet ein Bild auf die Straße.
...
- 542
11
votes
What is "einem neugierigen Journalisten" in the dativ plural form?
Einem is singular, because it means one. German has no indefinite plural article.
Indefinite article:
Wem haben Sie das gesagt? – Einem neugierigen Journalisten. (Singular männlich)
Wem haben Sie das ...
- 64.6k
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