Dative case
You use the dative case for the indirect object in a sentence.
The indirect object is the person or thing to or for whom something is done.
To make it clearer, let's analyse this English sentence:
- The pupil gave the teacher a present.
So now, you need to ask yourself the questions:
Here are some German examples:
- Ich habe meiner Freundin eine E-Mail geschickt. – I sent my friend an email.
- Er hat seinem Bruder eine Geschichte erzählt. – He told his brother a story.
Question
Who told the story?
What did he tell?
To whom did he tell it?
Dative verbs
There are several verbs that are always used with the dative. Here are the most common ones.
- danken – to thank (to give thanks to)
- folgen – to follow
- glauben – to believe (to give belief to)
- helfen – to help (to give help to)
Examples in use
- Ich dankte meiner Oma für das Geschenk. – I thanked my Grandma for the present.
The verb danken takes the dative, so meiner Oma is in the dative case.
- Er hilft nie seinem Vater. – He never helps his father.
The form hilft is from the verb helfen which takes the dative, so seinem Vater is in the dative case.
