Please could you explain the what the dative in German is?

The German dative is a grammatical case which can be applied to nouns or pronouns to indicate what we call in English an 'indirect object.' Whereas a noun in the accusative case is the direct object of a verb, a noun in the dative will be indirectly affected by the verb. Since the dative case doesn't exist in English, we can often (but not always) substitute in 'to/for' to translate it from German.E.g. Die Frau gibt dem Mann einen Kuss = The woman gives (to) the man a kiss'dem Mann' = 'the man' in the dative case As you can see above, we can spot the dative case by a change to the article before a noun (here 'dem').

IH
Answered by Izzy H. German tutor

1783 Views

See similar German GCSE tutors

Related German GCSE answers

All answers ▸

How to form the past tense? Example present tense sentence to be changed into the perfect tense: Jeden Tag trinke ich 2 Liter Wasser.


Was könnte man machen, um die Umwelt zu retten?


Which rule do you have to keep in mind if you want to form a sentence in German?


Translate the following sentences into German. 1. "I have a sister and she is called Anna." 2. "My brother is tall and very nice" 3. "We live in a house with a garden" 4. "My school has a swimming pool" 5. "I ate chicken and salad yesterday"


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2025 by IXL Learning