15.3 Ich erinnere mich gerne daran, wie ich mit meiner Oma im Garten gespielt habe.

From 15.3

Ich erinnere mich gerne daran, wie ich mit meiner Oma im Garten gespielt habe.

I remember happily how I played with my grandmother in the garden.

This is a question about daran in this sentence.

In my general reading, I have noticed that da words often get used in this way. That is in a main clause leading on to a sub clause.

Is daran essential here, would the sentence still work if it was left out?

I am not clear how to use this construction in my own sentences.

Here is another example (not from the course).

Ich zweifle daran, dass er die Wahrheit sagt.
 

Guten Tag sfpugh,

thank you for your question!

Generally da-compounds replace a pronoun that is used with a preposition and refers to an inanimate object or idea, for example:

“Meine Kindheit war schön. Ich erinnere mich gerne daran." - “My childhood was nice. I happily remember it.”

Usually we would just use a pronoun to refer to a noun which was mentioned in a previous sentence.  But it would be incorrect to say “Meine Kindheit war schön. Ich erinnere mich gerne an sie.” because we are talking about an inanimate object/experience. This is why we have to use daran.

If we were referring to a person, a preposition + pronoun would be perfectly fine, for example:

“Meine Oma hieß Sophie. Ich erinnere mich gerne an sie.” - “My grandmother was called Sophie. I happily remember her .”

The other way you can use da-compounds is to refer to an entire clause:

“Ich erinnere mich gerne daran, wie ich mit meiner Oma im Garten gespielt habe.” - “I remember happily how I played with my grandmother in the garden.” 

Daran refers to to the entire clause after the comma. This is also called an anticipary da-compound. These are used with a prepositional verb, e.g. “zweifeln an” - “to doubt”.

Note that you have to add “r” as in dar– when the preposition begins with a vowel (e.g. “daran”).

Let's have a look at another example:

"Es ist bald Sommer. Ich freue mich darauf." - “It's summer soon. I am looking forward to it.” or “Ich freue mich darauf, dass bald Sommer ist.” - “I am looking forward (to the fact) that it's summer soon.” 

Here we have the prepositional verb “freuen auf” so we need to use the da-compound “darauf”.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions!

Viele Grüße,

Julia

Thank you Julia it was the anticipatory da words that were bothering me.

So if I understand correctly, when you have a prepositional verb you need da if you are referring to a subclause.

So could you change

Ich zweifle daran, dass er die Wahrheit sagt.

to

Ich bezweifle , dass er die Wahrheit sagt.

Because bezweifen doesn't require the preposition an?

VG

Simon

Hi Simon, 

Yes, “Ich bezweifle , dass er die Wahrheit sagt.” will work :) 

Viele Grüße,

Julia

Thank you Julia, that great.

Simon