4.4 Dative verbs — the 30 that take no accusative — Epoché
What you will be able to do Use the thirty commonest German verbs whose only object is in the dative, among them helfen, danken, folgen, gefallen and gehören . Recognise the trap: for most of these verbs English has a plain direct object — help him , thank you , follow me — and German still says ihm, dir, mir . Handle the second group, where the English subject becomes a German dative: I like her is Sie gefällt mir , and I miss you is Du fehlst mir . Explain why these verbs exist by looking at what English itself did with like . Sentences from this lesson, before the explanation. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Weinen nützt nichts. Es hört dich ja doch niemand. [1] There is no use in crying. No one will hear you. Er ähnelt seinem Vater sehr. [2] He closely resembles his father. Niemand konnte mir sagen, warum das passiert ist. [3] Nobody could tell me why that happened. Wir glauben, dass es ihm möglich ist, das Problem zu lösen. [4] We think it is possible for him to solve the problem. Eine Stunde reicht nicht dafür. [5] One hour isn't enough for that. Antworte so bald wie möglich! [6] Answer as soon as possible! Das schadet mehr, als dass es nützt. [7] It does more harm than good. Prerequisites : 4.3 — you need the dative pronouns and the dative as the case of the receiver from 4.3 Cases . In the last lesson the dative was one object among two: the receiver, beside a thing given. This lesson is about verbs that have a dative and nothing else. There are a few dozen of them in everyday use, and they are the single largest source of case mistakes made by English speakers, because English gives almost all of them an ordinary direct object. The cure is not a rule but a list, learned with sentences. Table Here are the thirty, sorted into two groups. In the first group the German dative stands where English has a direct object. In the second the German subject is the thing, and the person is in the dative. For most of these English turns the sentence round and makes the person its subject ; three, marked below, keep the German shape in English too. Group German verb English English object helfen to help someone English object danken to thank someone English object folgen to follow someone English object glauben to believe someone English object vertrauen to trust someone English object antworten to answer someone English object begegnen to meet someone by chance English object gratulieren to congratulate someone English object gehorchen to obey someone English object widersprechen to contradict someone English object zustimmen to agree with someone English object zuhören to listen to someone English object verzeihen to forgive someone English object raten to advise someone English object dienen to serve someone or something English object ähneln , gleichen to resemble someone English object schaden to harm someone English object nützen to be of use to someone English subject gefallen someone likes it English subject fehlen someone misses it English subject schmecken someone likes the taste English subject gehören someone owns it Same in English passen it suits someone, it fits someone Same in English stehen it looks good on someone English subject gelingen someone manages it Same in English passieren it happens to someone English subject wehtun someone is hurting English subject leidtun someone is sorry English subject reichen someone has had enough Two of these, zuhören and zustimmen , are separable: the prefix goes to the end of the clause, as you learned in 2.8 Grammar . wehtun and leidtun work the same way: es tut mir leid . Group one: where English has a direct object For these verbs, translating word by word from English produces an accusative, and the accusative is wrong. Say each sentence with the dative pronoun clearly marked. German English Er hilft mir. [8] He's helping me. Ich half ihr. [9] I helped her. Ich glaube dir. [10] I believe you. Warum folgen Sie mir? [11] Why are you following me? Ich vertraue dir nicht mehr. [12] I don't trust you any more. Ich danke Ihnen für Ihre Mitarbeit. [13] I thank you for your cooperation. Ich gratulierte ihm zu seinem Erfolg. [14] I congratulated him on his success. Niemand hört mir zu. [15] No one is listening to me. English help her , believe you , follow me , trust you all look like the accusative-taking verbs from 4.1 Cases . The only way to know is to know the verb. A good habit is to learn each of these verbs with a pronoun attached, as a unit: jemandem helfen , jemandem danken , where jemandem is the dative of someone . Dictionaries mark them this way, and you will now see it in the dictionary panel. Some of these verbs also have a thing as their object, which stays in the accusative, while the person stays in the dative. You saw this with verzeihen , and it is true of glauben as well: ich glaube dir is I believe you , but ich glaube das is I believe that . Group two: where the thing is the subject The second group turns the English sentence inside out. In English, the person who likes, misses or owns is the subject. In German, the thing that is liked, missed or owned is the subject, and the person is in the dative. Three verbs in this group, passen , stehen and passieren , need no turning: English says it suits you and it happened to him with the same shape. German English Sie gefällt mir. [16] I like her. Sie gefällt ihm. [17] He likes her. Wie gefällt dir Deutschland? [18] How do you like Germany? Du fehlst mir. [19] I miss you. Er fehlt dir sehr, oder? [20] You miss him a lot, don't you? Das gehört mir. [21] That belongs to me. Dieser Tee schmeckt mir. [22] I like this tea. Rot steht dir. [23] Red suits you. Das passt mir gut. [24] Suits me fine. Er tut mir leid. [25] I feel sorry for him. Das war ihm nie zuvor passiert. [26] That had never happened to him before. Es gelang ihm nicht, Arbeit zu finden. [27] He had no luck in finding work. Look closely at the first two. Sie gefällt mir means I like h