Accusative vs dative question

This sentence appears in Lesson 10.2:
Am besten schauen sie in die Samstagszeitung.

"In die Samstagszeitung" appears to be using the accusative.  Why isn't it dative (in der Samstagszeitung)?  There doesn't seem to be a "change in state" or "movement toward" that would make it accusative.  

I think it is the act of looking which makes it accusative. I guess it provides direction towards, even if not actual movement.

I guess if you said “it is in the newspaper” it would be dative.

Guten Tag RobertD50 und sfpugh!

Yes, sfpugh, you are quite right, it's the act of looking or you can think of it as the movement of your eyes which are directed to the newspaper (from looking at something else before).

Grüße,

Julia

Thanks.  I have another accusative vs dative question.  In Lesson 10.4, why is it "Ich danke Ihnen" instead of "Ich danke Sie?"  In English, "you" would be a direct object, not an indirect object, so it seems like we should be using the accusative, not the dative.

Danken is a verb that takes the dative case, hence Ich danke dir.

There is a video about dative verbs here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy7NPmWgaTk&ab_channel=lingoniGERMAN

and a list of dative verbs here:

http://deutsch.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Verbs-Dative-Verbs.pdf

I see, thank you.  I guess that's a topic that I haven't come to yet, but explains some other confusing examples that have been used.

Hallo nochmal!

Yes, danken is one of the German verbs that always takes the dative case (dative verb).

To answer your question regarding Ihnen being the indirect object of the sentence - you can also think of it as “I give thanks to you.“ ("you" is the person to whom an action is being performed).

Viele Grüße,

Julia

Yet another dative-accusative question.  In Lesson 10.8, regarding the phrase "Die jungen Eltern passen auf das kleine Kind auf."--"auf das kleine Kind" appears to be using the accusative, but I see no motion toward or change of state, so why isn't it dative?

These accusative dative things are tricky aren't they. I am often confused. I think what is going on here is that although there is no movement or change of state, there is direction - The parents are directing their care towards the child.  Also there is no sense of anything being located in a place - I am not sure if it is completely reliable to think of it that way.

For aufpassen I think of the stock phrase “Pass auf dich auf” - Take care of yourself.

Hallo!

German cases are indeed confusing sometimes! Another way to determine a case is to ask specific questions. So let's look at the sentence "Die jungen Eltern passen auf das kleine Kind auf." - "The young parents watch over the little child."  Here we can ask:

“Wer (oder was) passt auf das kleine Kind auf?” - “Who (or what) watches over the little child?”

→ “Die jungen Eltern” - “The young parents” | nominative case

“Auf wen (oder was) passen die jungen Eltern auf?” - “Over whom (or what) do the young parents watch over?”

→ “das kleine Kind” - “the little child” | accusative case

Now let's change the sentence up a bit: "Die jungen Eltern geben dem kleinen Kind einen Kuss." - “The young parents give the little child a kiss.”

“Wer (oder was) gibt dem kleinen Kind einen Kuss?" - “Who (or what) gives the little child a kiss?”

→ “Die jungen Eltern” - “The young parents” | nominative case

“Wem (oder was) geben die jungen Eltern einen Kuss?” - “To whom do the young parents give a kiss?” 

→ “dem kleinen Kind” - “the little child” | dative case

I hope this helps!

Viele Grüße,

Julia

Thank you both.  Sometimes I feel like I need 60 seconds, paper, & pencil to translate even the simplest sentence when it comes to parsing all the cases, genders, plurality, & wind direction.

Don't forget tidal current, Robert.  Sehr wichtig, um Deutsch zu verstehen!