A1 · Personal pronouns
helfen, gefallen + Dativ
help, please, belong to, taste, thank, answer + dative
FormSubjekt + Verb (Position 2) + Dativpronomen / Dativnomen
Meaning and usage
Some German verbs take only one object, and that object is in the dative, not the accusative. The most common are helfen, gefallen, gehören, schmecken, danken and antworten. The person who receives the help, the liking, the belonging, the taste, the thanks or the answer stands in the dative: Ich danke dir, Das Buch gehört mir, Die Suppe schmeckt ihm.
The dative forms of the personal pronouns are mir, dir, ihm, ihr, uns, euch, ihnen and Ihnen. Learners often use the accusative mich, dich, ihn with these verbs, but that is not German. A few of these verbs can also take a second object or a prepositional phrase, for example Ich danke dir für das Geschenk or Ich helfe dir bei der Arbeit. The thing thanked for or helped with is never a bare accusative object.
Examples 6
Ich danke dir sehr für deine Hilfe.
I thank you very much for your help.
Das Ende des Films hat mir gefallen.
I liked the way that movie ended.
Ich danke dir für das schöne Geschenk.
Thank you for this nice present.
Deine neue Arbeit wird dir bestimmt gefallen.
I'm sure you'll like your new job.
Wie viel von dem Zeug gehört dir?
How much of this stuff is yours?
Lass mich dir bei deiner Arbeit helfen.
Let me help you with your work.
Test yourself
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1 Sprachbausteine
Das neue Handy gefällt sehr.
Show answer
Correct answer: mir
gefallen takes a dative object, so the first person singular pronoun is mir. The other forms do not fit the dative slot of this verb.
- mich is the accusative form of ich, used with verbs like sehen or lieben, not with gefallen.
- ich is the nominative form, used for the subject, but here the subject is das neue Handy.
- meiner is a possessive or genitive form, not the dative personal pronoun needed here.
In this topic: Personal pronouns
- ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, sie I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they
- du / Sie Polite you, capitalised Sie with the verb in the -en form
- der Tisch → er er, sie, es replace a thing by its gender
- mich, dich, ihn me, you, him as the one acted on
- mir, dir, ihm to me, to you, to him: the person who gets something
- helfen, gefallen + Dativ help, please, belong to, taste, thank, answer + dative
- es gibt + Akkusativ there is, there are
- Ich gebe es dir. When both objects are pronouns, the accusative comes first
Example sentences from Tatoeba, used under CC BY 2.0 FR. See sources.