Personal Pronouns in the Dative Case in German
Personal Pronouns in the Dative Case in German
Here are the personal pronouns in the dative case:
| Singular | Prular | |||
| 1st person | mir | me | uns | us |
| 2nd person | dir (Ihnen*) | you | euch (Ihnen*) | you |
| 3rd person | ihm, ihr, ihm |
him, her, it | ihnen (all genders) | them |
The dative case is that of the indirect object of a verb. The pronoun indirect object of these sentences is blue in the German and the English:
Es geht mir gut It goes (for) me well
Wie geht es dir? How goes it (for or with) you
Und können Sie mir sagen…? And can you tell me…?
Karl gibt ihm den Ball Karl gave him the ball.
Wie geht es Ihnen? How goes it (with) you? (How are you?)
This last sentence is an example using the polite form of ‘you’. Whether singular or plural must be established by context. This next sentence translates with ihnen as ‘them’:
Wie geht es ihnen? How goes it with them? (How are they?)
Another use of the dative case in German is after these prepositions: aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu. You will be introduced to the meanings of these prepositions over many future lessons rather than all at once, because some have many meanings in English. Indeed, because each language associates specific prepositions with many common sayings (and these often do not correspond in German and English), these “little” words can be troublesome for students. Nonetheless, you should memorize now the list of prepositions above to always remember their association with the dative case.
Word order in a German sentence with an indirect object depends upon whether that direct object is a pronoun or a noun. If the direct object is a noun, the dative precedes the accusative; if the direct object is a personal pronoun, the accusative precedes the dative:
Ich gebe dem Jungen den Ball. I give the boy the ball.
Ich gebe ihm den Ball. I give him the ball.
Ich gebe ihn ihm. I give it to him.
Ich gebe ihn dem Jungen. I give it to the boy.
