When Do You Use Dativ In German

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Penelope holds a doctorate degree in German and a professional teaching license in the state of Colorado. She has taught middle school through university, online and live.
This lesson introduces the dative case. You'll learn the personal pronouns as well as the definite and indefinite articles in the dative. We'll also explore various uses of the dative, including the indirect object, with certain verbs and prepositions, and in the reflexive.
Cases represent the parts of speech within a sentence. They are an important part of German grammar because they are responsible for the endings of adjectives and indefinite articles and determine when to use which personal pronouns. Will people understand you if you use the wrong case? Possibly, but it could also lead to some pretty big misunderstandings, so it is best to try to get it straight.
You may already be familiar with the nominative and accusative cases, but let's do a quick refresher before moving on to dative case.
The nominative case is used with the subject of the sentence. The subject is the person or thing performing the action of the verb (the doer of the sentence).
The accusative case is used to mark the direct object. That is, the person or thing receiving the action of the verb.
The dative case is used to indicate the indirect object of a sentence. It answers the question: To or for whom? Just as with the nominative and accusative, the articles and personal pronouns change in the dative.
Remember, the article or pronoun you use must agree with the gender of the noun, the case in which it is used, and whether it is singular or plural.
When there are two objects (direct and indirect): a dative noun precedes an accusative noun; an accusative pronoun precedes a dative pronoun; and a pronoun always a noun:
As we have learned, the dative is used to indicated the indirect object of the verb: Sie kauft ihm ein Geschenk. (She is buying him a present.)
There are certain verbs that require the dative. Here are ten common dative verbs, but keep in mind that there are many more:
With designated dative prepositions:
Everyone except for me is going to the concert.
After the movie we are going out to eat.
The reflexive is used in the dative when the action is directed back toward the subject:
The dative case has many uses, but its primary purpose is to indicate the indirect object in the sentence. It answers the question: To or for whom? There are personal pronouns, direct, and indirect articles that agree with the dative case. The dative is also used with certain prepositions, with certain verbs, and in the reflexive when the action is directed back toward the subject.
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Let me give it to you straight: learning German is no picnic.
For English speakers—nay, speakers of many languages—German grammar can be a confusing mixture of three grammatical genders, separable prefix verbs and complex word-building.
One of these is the dative case—a term we don’t often hear in English but that’s crucial to German learning.
At first, the dative case can seem as frustrating as a horde of ants disrupting a beautiful picnic.
But take a breath, dear learner: there’s no need to be a hopeless case!
Learning German may be no picnic, but this easy-to-follow guide can make dative pronouns feel like a walk in the park.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
German dative case pronouns don’t have to be complicated, but a basic understanding of grammatical cases in German will go a long way. Get your review below!
Grammatical cases are a big part of learning German grammar because they impact how we use nouns in German.
In short, German cases are different forms of nouns that reflect the function of the noun in a sentence.
This may sound confusing at first, but actually, we do have a version of this in English, too. Consider the following two sentences:
“They” and “them” refer to the same group of people, but we use different words because they have different functions in the sentence.
This is basically what cases are in German. However, in German there are four cases—and they impact nouns as well as pronouns.
In German, nouns are easily identified because they’re always capitalized.
Depending on the noun’s function in a sentence, it’ll fall into one of the four following grammatical cases:
In case you missed it, German has four cases.
The nominative case is used for subjects (the doers of verbs), and the accusative case is for direct objects (the noun acted upon by the verb). These are the most commonly used cases for simple sentences.
For example, in the sentence ich habe den Computer meiner Mutter gegeben (I gave the computer to my mom), ich (I) is in the nominative case, den Computer (the computer) is in the accusative case and meiner Mutter (to my mother) is in the dative.
A pronoun could also be used to replace meiner Mutter, but more on that later.
In addition to the dative case being used for indirect objects, there is a group of verbs in German that’ll always have objects that are in the dative case.
This rule applies even if the object that follows would typically be considered a direct object in English.
For now, let’s just look at a list of common verbs that are followed by the dative case:
For example, the object in sentence Ich helfe der Frau (I’m helping the woman) must change its definite article into the dative case.
Further, the indefinite article in the sentence Der Mann glaubt einem Mädchen nicht (the man does not believe a girl) also changes to the dative case.
Lastly, the pronoun in the sentence Ich verzeiht dir (I am following you) must also be in the dative case, triggered by the verb verzeihen.
Now that we’re clear on what the dative case is and when to use it, let’s look at how to use dative pronouns.
When nouns are preceded by definite and indefinite articles, the dative case is shown primarily through changes that are made to these articles.
For example, der Hund (the dog) becomes den Hund in the accusative case, dem Hund in the dative case and des Hundes in the genitive case.
When these articles and nouns are replaced with pronouns such as the German equivalents of “he” and “it,” these pronouns too must change to reflect the dative case.
There are two types of pronouns that are used in the dative case in German.
The first is personal pronouns. These are the ones that replace people such as der Vater (the father) or Maria. They can also replace groups of people such as der Vater und Maria (the father and Maria).
Since you’re probably already familiar with the German nominative pronouns, we’ll use those as a reference point to show how pronouns change when you move to the dative case:
Ich is the personal pronoun in the nominative case that means “I.” When in the dative case, ich becomes mir (to me).
Kannst du mir helfen?
Can you help me?
Du is the personal pronoun in the nominative case that means “you” in the singular sense. When in the dative case, du becomes dir (to you).
Was hat er dir gegeben?
What did he give you?
Er and sie are the personal pronouns that mean “he” and “she” in the nominative case. When in the dative case, er becomes ihm (to him) and sie becomes ihr (to her).
Ich glaube ihm nicht, sondern glaube ich ihr.
I don’t believe him but I believe her.
Wir is the personal pronoun that means “we” in the nominative case. When in the dative case, wir becomes uns (to us).
Sie danken uns für das Bier.
They thank us for the beer.
Ihr is the personal pronoun that means “you” in the plural sense. When in the dative case, ihr becomes euch (to you).
Ich werde euch folgen.
I will follow you all.
Lastly, sie is the personal pronoun that means “they.” When in the dative case, sie becomes ihnen (to them).
Hilfst du ihnen?
Are you helping them?
Keep in mind that Sie (with a capital S) means “you” in the formal sense. As such, Ihnen (with a capital I) means “to you” in the formal sense.
Sie helfen Ihnen.
They help you. (Formal)
Ihnen is also used in this way in the common sentence, Wie geht es Ihnen? (How are you?)
As in the nominative case, certain personal pronouns can also be used to replace non-human and inanimate objects. These are generally the third person pronouns er, sie and plural sie. 
Their dative equivalents are ihm (to him/it), ihr (to her/it) and ihnen (to them) as well. Check out the following example sentences:
Ich gebe dem Hund einen Ball. — I give a ball to the dog.
Ich gebe ihm einen Ball. — I give him a ball.
Du folgt dem Weg. — You follow the path.
Du folgt ihm. — you follow it.
Er dankt den Fröschen nicht. — He doesn’t thank the frogs.
Er dankt ihnen nicht. — He doesn’t thank them.
Ich glaube dem Buch. — I believe the book.
Ich glaube ihm. — I believe it.
The third person pronoun es is also used to replace neuter nouns in the nominative case. In the dative case, this, too, becomes ihm.
For example, the noun das Mädchen (the girl) is a neuter noun. The sentence ich danke das Mädchen (I thank the girl) would become ich danke ihm (I thank her), using the masculine pronoun even though the girl is female—because the noun Mädchen is neuter in actuality.
In addition to the aforementioned verbs, there are also a number of sentence constructions that require dative pronouns.
Firstly, to talk about the temperature in relation to a person, one must use the dative case. For example, mir ist kalt means “I am cold” and ihnen ist heiß means “they are hot.”
You can’t say ich bin kalt or sie sind heiß which are common literal translations from English.
The following verbs also require dative pronouns:
Das Hemd gefällt mir. — I like the shirt.
Schnitzel schmeckt ihnen gut. — Schnitzel tastes good to them.
Tut dir der Kopf weh? — Does your head hurt?
Ihr fehlen die Wörter. — She lacks the words.
Das Buch gehört euch. — The book belongs to you all.
Das hat uns passiert. — That happened to us.
Learning without practice? Don’t let that be the case!
As you review your German dative pronouns, you’ll find that there are many resources online to help you practice. Here are a few great ones to start you off:
If you prefer to learn through immersion, it’s a great idea to check out FluentU.
Each video comes equipped with interactive subtitles and a full transcript, so you can follow along as you watch. After you finish a video, you can take a personalized quiz or use FluentU’s “learn mode” to reinforce grammar and vocabulary.
Watching videos of native German speakers while reading along at the same time is an amazing way to practice your German grammar. You’ll learn German as it’s spoken in the real world. After watching a few videos, tricky grammar concepts like choosing the correct case and the correct pronoun will start to come naturally.
Check out FluentU’s free trial, and see how much you can learn!
Now get to case work! You have the knowledge to master German dative personal pronouns and skyrocket your level of German.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
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