The sequencing of nouns and pronouns
Accusative and dative
Good news! The only thing you have to remember vis-à-vis the placement of nouns is the sequencing of thedirectandindirect objects, i.e., the dative and accusative nouns and the possible pronouns that replace them.
| Maria | Ich gebe meinem Freund einen Ring. | |
| Also, ich gebeihmeinen Apfel. Ich gebeihn meinem Freund. Ich gebe ihnihm! |
Please note:
- if you have two nouns (one accusative, one dative), thedative noun precedes the accusative noun!
- pronouns precede nouns
- an accusative pronoun precedes the dative pronoun
| Dative noun | Accusative noun |
| Pronoun | Noun |
| Accusative pronoun | Dative pronoun |
When you gain more confidence with German, you can experiment with the word order of nouns and pronouns, and see how mixing the elements leads to differential emphases in a sentence. Secret: you can actually switch the dative and accusative nouns around if you really want to emphasize the recipient of an action – if there is unusual placement of elements, they tend to draw extra attention to themselves!
Wortstellung
When there is more than one object in a sentence, here are some rules for word order:
| If there are two nouns, | dative nouncomes before | accusative noun. |
| Die Mutter gibt | dem Mädchen | einen Apfel. |
| If there is one pronoun and one noun, | pronouncomes before | noun. |
| Die Mutter gibt | ihn | dem Mädchen. |
| Die Mutter gibt | ihm | den Korb. |
| If there are two pronouns, | accusative pronouncomes before | dative pronoun. |
| Die Mutter gibt | ihn | ihm |
